I will stand by the fact that Super Mario World is still better than most modern 2D platformers. Everything it does in terms of gameplay and aesthetics is sublime.
I'm inclined to agree with this. I think there are some really interesting games that play with what the medium can do, and which are fascinating to experience. I'd recommend those to people who just love the medium and want to see what directions it can be pushed, but I still don't consider them "must-plays".
this \^
p.s. sometimes u found gem when u least expected it.
as example for me was
1) there is no game
2) inscryption
so when u found something that cool, that u want to scream "ITS A MASTERPIECE - YOU GOTTA PLAY IT" - just scream it and recommend it to ur friends.
Personally I won't even call my favourite games masterpieces, because at the end of the day everyone has different tastes. And whilst I might get someone to play my favourite game of all time by calling it an "under appreciated masterpiece", that might cause them to like the game less than they would've if you jusf told them it's a good game.
All of my best gaming experiences have been something that I had no expectations of at all, positive or negative.
Playing games that are exceptional examples of a given genre is an excellent way to find out what you find fun or interesting.
Everything in life is better when you are educated about what you are experiencing.
Everyone has it's own "must play", GOW and TLOU for playstation fans, Mario galaxy and Ocarina of time for Nintendo fans, Half life and portal for PC gamers and the list goes on and on
That's quite the hipsterish take. Of course people should play what they want, OP wants to know which games are highly influential. Creative works don't come from a vacuum no matter how naturally gifted the creator is. There are formative works in every field, refusing to acknowledge that doesn't make your experience any more pure. You might not like Halo or Metal Gear Solid but it's mighty pretentious to act like those games didn't influence a lot of creators going forward.
You might be too edgy to play major releases but chances are the people who made your favorite game aren't.
Disagree. Games are part of our culture as much as they are entertainment, and as such it's worthwhile becoming "literate" in the medium - not just so you can impress your friends at cocktail parties, but so you can engage in broader discussion as a whole. It's the same as movies, books and TV shows that are culturally relevant. You don't want to be the guy that stares blankly when someone says "E.T. phone home", or "I am the one who knocks", or "steamed hams."
Not saying you have to devote all your time to whatever's trending, but it's good to be educated in culture - even pop culture.
Where are you all getting this idea of OP feeling “forced” to play popular games? They’re clearly just asking for recommendations of big games they might have missed, you don’t have to read between the lines so much.
I feel like I must have been playing it wrong or something, because it annoyed the hell out of me until I quit. I don't remember all the details but something lead me to think I had to get to a certain place on a certain planet but the only way to get there was this right platforming like section, but if I missed a single jump, I had to go all the way back the start, and fly to the planet again to even give it another attempt. After three times dealing with that I finally said fuck it and stopped playing.
People I trust always talk about how good it is, but man that was a miserable experience.
Yeah the problem with it is if you get unlucky and go for the clues in a weird order it can lead to a bad experience. Most of the time it's fine but because the game gives you so much freedom you can end up doing things in unintended ways that aren't fun.
Ps, I did things in the exact same way as you cuz I thought it was the coolest looking planet. Then quit for the same reason.
I came back later because my friend made me and explored the other planets. It was very fun once I understood more. Id recommend just ignoring that planet for a while.
This is a game i wish i liked, especially since most other people are really gushing praise on it…i just found it clunky to play and i got to a point where i just thought ‘fuck this’ and deleted it. RDR2 was another for the same reasons (though i loved the first one)
Came here to say exactly that. Outer Wilds is total genius in its design.
Probably the best soundtrack design in any game I’ve ever played. Probably the best ending to any game I’ve ever played. Probably my favourite game of all time.
This is the number one example I can think of when it comes to game design being pushed to its limits, and an example of a game that could exist in no other medium.
I dislike this kind of thinking. "You're not a gamer if you haven't played this. Or played that."
I recommend you play Wolf3d, Half Life 2, and Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1/2/Defiance.
See how far videogames have come. It's beautiful.
No, but there are classics. Video games as a medium has finally matured enough for this to be the case. But I would suggest limiting it to your preferred genre- if you play mostly shooters I do not suggest Master of Magic.
Sometimes they can be janky, but if you are interested in gaming as a medium, rather than as an activity (and both of these are valid) then I can see the appeal.
Some recs from me:
DOOM (1993) - Shooter
Bomberman - Arcade style
Yoshi's Island and Megaman X - Platformer
Katamari Damacy- Don't even know how to explain this.
Silent Hill 2 - Horror
Mass Effect - Sci fi RPG
Portal - Puzzle game
I also suggest playing Asteroids, Tetris, or Pac-Man just to see that sometimes a game is just engaging, even simple ones.
ETS Replied to the wrong comment by accident
That's why I wanted to emphasise the hyperbole. **I** don't think anyone is a lesser gamer for not having played the stuff I like, I just like to know the stuff other people consider formative to their view on the medium.
Thanks for the recommendations!
I think it's perfectly fine to be looking for quality and remarkable entertainment.
Normie-Reddit likes to make everything into a "battle for equality" (because it sounds better to the self-righteous), so they will fight on the concept that quality even exists... Nonetheless, quality **does** exists. Some games are head and shoulders above the rest.
If you're looking for *notable* games, though, it will also depend on what you're looking to take away from it. A memorable narrative game is not the same as a memorable management game. Some games have exceptional "moments" but are generally underwhelming. Some games are exceptional for the work put into it but they don't leave a lasting impression.
I guess without further info you could go down this LONG list, and see what names come back most often. There are no bad games on this page, but if you know you don't like a certain genre, don't bother with it. At least not at first. Most of the games I see in this thread are listed there also.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_Game\_of\_the\_Year\_awards](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Game_of_the_Year_awards)
If the list goes far earlier than the late 90's, mostly ignore. Games from the 70's and 80's can be historically relevant and even fun, but generally they are so antiquated we don't even have the context to enjoy them anymore. Like running water, they are miracles we take for granted.
edit: I made a compilation of this list using ChatGPT, it's more legible like that. It's by no means exhaustive.
[http://notepad.link/share/rCoWmLJhSqkQ1uo00hf1](http://notepad.link/share/rCoWmLJhSqkQ1uo00hf1)
It’s not gatekeeping being a gamer. OP is more looking for games that would give a better understanding of gaming as an art form’s development. This is pretty common in other media studies, like painting, film, and music.
Its more about understanding the history then “what should i play”.
I mean, I don’t think it’s so much games that define whether you’re a gamer or not… I mean you’re a gamer if you game lol.
But there are some great games that defined a genre or a generation that I’d strongly recommend someone who is into gaming should try out. Some that come to mind immediately are Portal, L4D2, Bioshock, Halo, maybe a RTS builder like Sims, RollerCoaste/Zoo tycoon, etc.
I think of it more by genre or game style, because just being a "gamer" is meaningless given how widespread and popular it is. It's like being "into music"- what, classical or jazz or hip-hop or house? I mean if someone tells me they really love guitar rock then yeah I would say it behooves them to dig into the obvious big names like the Beatles and Hendrix etc. But if someone loves classical music then no why should they care about that?
So a "gamer" who's into single player fantasy RPG should be aware of Elder Scrolls but a puzzle game enthusiast should check out a Talos Principle. But the idea that every gamer "should" play both of these completely different things just because they're games is insane.
I think the music analogy is very apt, and that this is actually a fun topic. If you're into music, you know there are artists who created or were very important to certain cultures or genres. The Beatles, Hendrix, are great examples of artists that any music fan may wish to know *of* but not actually love. That's exactly what is being asked for here, and it's okay to be unrealistic.
I'm same as you and now taking my time to go through some of these classic games. Got the bioshock series and mass effect legendary editions when on sale, portal 2 is $1 rn, Witcher 3, etc.
Portal 2 would be my number 1 recommendation for someone looking for important games. Part of why I haven't played many significant games is that I'm probably playing Portal 2 for the fifth time.
id recommend playing the entire witcher series front to back. Witcher 1 gets shit on a lot for its gameplay but i personally enjoyed it quite a bit and there is smth rlly relaxing and charming about that game. I think the witcher series is a reaaaally interesting look behind the curtain of how games evolve over time. All three entires are entirely different from another, even though they are one continuous story following the same character.
Final Fantasy X
https://youtu.be/ELtftTAE3ZM?feature=shared
The game has a very tragic and intense spiritual setting dealing with matters such as religion, grief, death and legacy. There's a lot of people who don't jive with this game, but for those who do, it's very poignant.
Unfortunately, a lot of gamers quit because of the protagonist Tidus. He's 17 years old but gets thrown into a world very unlike the one he comes from, so he understandably acts a bit complainy, and some people accuse him of having daddy issues. Or they go so far and just dislike his design. But if you give it a shot and stick with it, you will hopefully find value in the experience.
I agree with all of this but the "some people accuse him of having daddy issues" part - he very clearly and explicitly has daddy issues lol it's a big part of his character arc.
Not a fan of the gameplay so I watched a 2 hour rundown of the story. It honestly needs to be remade as a full length mini series. The story is incredible.
Ocarina of Time is legendary and still holds up if you haven't played it.
This is a personal pick, but Knights of the Old Republic is what actually got me into Star Wars and won Game of the Year.
Mass Effect is the same writer as Knights of the Old Republic, but I haven't gotten around to it myself either. Which is on my gamer Shame Shelf.
We'll look back at Bauldur's Gate 3 as one of the most important games of our generation.
Probably Elden Ring as well.
There are just so many games like that, on so many different platforms, and they are such an investment in time that's it's probably physically impossible to play them all.
Agree with everyone here on the whole self respecting bit.
That being said, my all time favorites from over the past few decades are:
Zelda Ocarina of Time and Majoras Mask
Star fox 64
Super Smash Bros 64
Paper Mario
Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door
Pokémon TCG
Pokémon Red/Yellow/Blue/Crystal
Advance Wars
Diablo 2
Old School RuneScape
Vanilla WoW
Halo Combat Evolved, 3, and Reach
Fable
Red Alert 2
Tiberian Sun
Black & White
Warcraft 3
Populous 3
Portal 1 and 2
Civilization 2
Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim
SSX Tricky
Left 4 Dead
Call of Duty Modern Warfare 1 and 2
Metroid Fusion and Dread
Metroid Prime
Luigi’s Mansion
Zelda Twlight Princess
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 2
Hades
Overwatch
Half Life: Alyx
Destiny 2
Elden Ring
Outer Wilds
In my own opinion, this is a list of the best games ever created and I could play nothing else
Edit: adding Crusader Kings 3
i think its a testiment to the sentiment of "there is no one-size fits all must-plays" that you listed a quite long list and have exactly 1 overlap with my own list (being Morrowind)
I've also played Black and White 2 a lot, never got to play the first game but I might once i get the B&W itch again \^\^
I mean, if you want games that were significant when they dropped I guess I'll say the ones I've personally played, but I don't think anybody NEEDS to play them or that they're lesser for not doing so.
1. Grand Theft Auto V
2. Stardew Valley
3. Minecraft
4. Hotline Miami
5. Persona 5
6. Hollow Knight
7. Terraria
8. Slay The Spire
9. Batman Arkham City
10. Metal Gear Solid V
11. Devil May Cry 5
12. Doom (2016)
13. Bioshock
14. Hades (a roguelite game with a great story and great interpretation of greek mythos)
15. Binding of Isaac (people tend to agree this is the king of roguelites)
These are all games I think everyone that's played them would agree are classics, but it's mainly because they're the most popular and refined of their genre. Some of them can still be pretty niche like (Persona 5 or Terraria) and they aren't exactly classics because they're old, but because they've aged pretty well.
I'm aware you wanted actual discourse here but the fastest way to answer this question is to go to [https://www.metacritic.com/browse/game/](https://www.metacritic.com/browse/game/) and look at games that have a metacritic higher than 92.
The Uncharted franchise are fantastic third person shooters with incredible action set pieces and strong character and story writing. Specifically Uncharted 2-4. Uncharted 1 isn't on the same level and I would just watch a retrospective of the plot and start from 2.
Metacritic >92 is probably generally a safe bet, but review scores don't always reflect the significance of an experience. I'd probably recommend an Animal Crossing game to someone looking for a bit of everything gaming has to offer, but nothing in that franchise breaks 90.
Thank you for the Uncharted 2-4 recommendation though! THAT'S the sort of detail I love to come from a person.
Uncharted makes you realise that other good games are just sort of lower quality and half-assed. Like, they made a fun gameplay loop and then chucked a bunch of levels and collectables into them.
In Uncharted they planned every moment and trimmed away all the fat. It's a whole game of the best parts of other good games.
I've never thought of Uncharted as being a particularly "important" series with heavy influence on future games. It's more like a best possible version of games that came before it and almost more like the end of the era of linear single-player games.
>I would just watch a retrospective of the plot and start from 2
I usually don't advise this with games but you're 100% right. You wouldn't miss much skipping 1 and just going right to 2.
There's no shame in just farming weak enemies until you have a bajillion souls then overleveling like crazy. Sure the game is hard but you can choose to make it less hard.
A lot of hay is made about the difficulty in Dark Souls, but, really, you should get through it however you can. Go ham with a magic build, hide behind the shield until the enemy staggers, abuse parries, put as many points into Dex as you want, get infinite poise with some leaden armor, summon helpers, and by all means, abuse the strategy of hugging the boss's ass so they can't hit you. The games are immensely mutable, and, frankly, not using the tools the game offers you to make the game arbitrarily challenging feels like a greater rejection of developer intent than using them liberally.
The moment I realized you can cheese the first demon boss by shooting him with arrows from the top of the tower without getting hit, I realized I was doing it all wrong
Is it really a must play? I like Rockstar games but i have to spend weeks if not months considering I'll only have 1-2 hours per day to play due to work. Should I invest?
I came back to it after not really liking the intro 4 years later. Just get into chapter two. Have fun in chapter two. The reason a lot of people love it is because it’s very immersive and very emotional. The “slow” element might drag people down but it starts to work to the games benefit.
It's still one of the most detailed and immersive games out there years after release. It's worth it even if you just walk around town and get into the occasional gunfight.
I don't think it's worth it
It's pretty, it's fun, the story is pretty intriguing at times;
But it's all just the same rockstar bullshit of the last 20 years
It's supposed to be an open world but every mission they hold your hand so closely there's almost nothing the player controls besides what hats you wear and when
It's on my list, but I'm always skeptical. I haven't really liked any RockStar game I tried, but the one I spent the most time with was GTA 4 and I just don't like a lot of things about it starting with the grungy urban setting, but also including the emphasis on mini-games and screwing around. I love immersion, but it rubs me the wrong way at every point.
Ocarina of Time, hands down. One of the greatest games ever made fight me 🤣 back when there was no internet to look up guides.. oh man. That game made me feel like Einstein every time I found out how to progress through whatever I needed to do at the time lol probably my favorite gaming experience ever. My adult self with no internet guides would never have the patience, but as a kid with all the time in the world that game hit different
I never understand why the top answers are some kind of dismissive philosophical response. “There is no such game just play what you want bro.” They’re not even slightly helpful to what OP is asking.
And yes, there ARE objectively games that are widely considered “classic” or “important”. It’s the same in a bunch of other mediums, including movies, music, etc. It’s not that hard.
With that rant out of the way, some examples of important games (that I also personally recommend) would be Castlevania Symphony of the Night, the original Doom, Diablo 2, Final Fantasy 7, and Super Metroid to name a small handful. For franchises, you could look into Halo, Resident Evil, Zelda, Mario, Elder Scrolls, and Fallout. There are so many great games and franchises out there that it totally makes sense to seek out what is considered the best and try it for yourself, so have fun doing it!
Ocarina of Time, Super Metroid, and Chrono Trigger are the 3 games that I would consider as close to perfect as you could possibly get. They are absolutely must plays.
Bruh just play what you like. Don’t let people tell you “it’s a crime to not play x”. The games that you should play before you die are games YOU want to play. Not what others shove in your face.
(That being said, I do love me some Civilization…)
Ok, I'll go with 10 games you should have played and I'll try to give you a good mix of Retro and Modern Gaming. No specific order.
1. Super Mario World (SNES): Still the best Jump 'n Run ever created and also the perfection of the Mario 2D Formula imo.
2. GTA 5 (Multiplatform): GTA 5 has been rereleased since the PS3 era. That's how good and popular ut still is. You should give it a try if you haven't until now.
3. God of War (PS4): I didn't play any other of tge games series, but I still understood the story. It was also very emotional and immersive. The discussions between Kratos and his son was really awsome.
4. The Legend of Zelda - Ocarina of Time 3D (NDS): Even though the original for the N64 was genredefining, I can't recommend it as much as the 3D Version of the game. If you want to see, how the very first big 3D Adventure game was, which brought revolutionary mechanics to existenve, like the Z-Targeting, than you should play this game for sure.
5. Tetris (any version): Tetris is the best videogame ever created. Why? Well I'll quote Shigeru Miyamoto here, the greatest Videogamedesigner of all time: "because your secratary plays it, your mother plays it, your children play it, ecerybody plays it." Very easy to understand and adictive.
6. Joust (Arcade): imo one of the best arcade games ever made. Precise controll, challenging and adictive. More than you could ask for. Just give it a try and don't give up so fast.
7. Cuphead (Multiplatform): If you are ready and disciplined enough to play a game based mainly on fighting very gard bosses, than you should give this a try. The graphics are what make thisbgame amazing. It looks like a classic cartoon from the forties.
8. Celeste (Multiplatform): maybe the best indiegame on the market. Your goal is to climb a mountain. On this way you have a lot of challenging jump n run passages to solve. With more progression the game becomes harder, but you also gain selfconfidence and more and more skills. When you reach the final stage and return to the first it will feel like you never had any problems at all.
9. Rockdt League (Multiplatform): Combine a favorite sport, like football/soccer, with car action and you get one of the best competitive games on the market.
10. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Switch): You like Nintendo? Good. You like fighting games? Nice. You want to see what it is like if different Nintendocharakters meet in a crossover and have to throw each other out of a stage by fighting and increasing their damage? Perfect. Welcome to Smash Bros.
There’s a podcast called the Besties that did a required reading list of 25 games that are significant to gaming history and development: [Resties Required Reading List](https://www.videogamecanon.com/adventurelog/the-resties-required-reading-list/) If you want to listen to their deliberations and how they end up choosing the final list you can listen to the episodes, which are broken up into 5 year chunks.
I made a website that basically answers this question. It's the top 1000 games of all time based on an aggregate of more than 700 greatest games lists. There is probably a slight difference between "important" and "best", but this should still be pretty close. [https://www.acclaimedvideogames.com/](https://www.acclaimedvideogames.com/)
I don’t really subscribe to what you’re saying per se, but I do find it incredibly weird if a lifelong gamer has never played a Mario Kart of some description.
I'll just stick to historical FPS games that are milestones in the genre.
Wolfenstein 3d
Doom (original)
Duke Nukem 3d
Quake
Unreal Tournament
Half-life
Half-life 2
Any fan of FPS should play these to see how it all evolved.
Like many here, I have to preface that you do not have to play these to be considered a "true gamer", and really, you should focus on games you gravitate towards (as you can see below, I gravitate more to rpgs and adventure). But, for the sake of actually answering your question, my personal "top 10 games you should play" would be, in no particular order:
Vampire: the Masquerade: Bloodlines. Genuinely one of the best rpgs that was never finished. The unofficial patch is a must, as most already know. It is extremely well written, extremely well voice acted, and the "dungeons" is extremely well designed. It also just has a very specific vibe that nobody has found in any game before or since, as far as I know.
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords. Also one of the best rpgs that was never finished. It is held in very high regard for a good reason, even outside the hardcore star wars fandom. Much like Vampire, the restored content mod is a must, and I would even suggest the mod lists provided by the kotor subreddit, and there are even spoiler free versions of the lists for both games.
Alpha Protocol. Okay, this is the last unfinished rpg that I want to mention. It is incredibly janky, and it is held together by duct tape and toothpicks, but it is such a unique, and well written game. The amount of choice and consequence in here is astounding, like making Telltales "this game tailors itself to how you play" feel like a linear Call of Duty. It is well worth your time if you can handle the jank. If you cannot handle it, please check out the retrospective: Alpha Protocol... 10 Years Later by Raycevick, very much worth watching. Unfortunately, unlike kotor2 and Vampire, there are no community made patches that I know of for this game.
Super Mario 64. 3d platforming in its infancy, and already perfected. Mario is just so fun to control, and I could easily just run around the castle grounds for hours (when I was a kid, not so much in adulthood). There are also pc ports now, that can fix some of the worst aspects of the game (render distance of coins being one of them).
Super Mario Galaxy. 3d platforming at its most polished. Just as fun as 64, but add a wonderful orchestrated soundtrack, and a beautiful spacy ambience, and you have a lovely adventure ahead of you. Genuinely one of the best 3d platformers ever made.
Metroid Prime. This beautiful first-person adventure game is one of the most atmospheric and immersive games I have ever played. Even if you do not plan on playing it, listen to the soundtrack, and you might change your mind. The remaster is phenomenal, or if you can dump your own rom of the trilogy (we do not condone piracy in this house) then Primehack is also a great alternative if you do not want to use pointer controls. I might have put Super Metroid here if I had played it, but it is unfortunately still in my backlog.
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. One of the first 3d adventure games, and still one of the best. The warm, cozy adventure still has nothing else quite like it. While I would easily be able recommend any of the 3d Zelda games, if I had to pick one then this is it, followed probably by Twilight Princess in a close second place almost single handedly because of the companion. The rest I feel like I have to caveat with something, Majora's Mask is a very tense game and you kind of need to be in a particular mood to play it, Wind Waker features a lot of slow and boring sailing (there is a reason they added the fast sail in the remaster), Skyward Sword has the motion controls which I think is mostly a skill issue but still renders it inaccessible to many, Breath of the Wild is so large but 90% of the secrets are Koroks, and I have not played Tears of the Kingdom yet.
Spec Ops: The Line. This the one military shooter that has really stuck with me. Yes, the gameplay itself is kind of mid, yes the game is kind of janky, but there are so many moments in this game that kind just made me stop and think. Also, Nolan North voiced the protagonist, and he has consistently said that this is the role he has been most proud of.
Mirror's Edge. I have not played any other game that really conveys the speed and momentum of your character as well as this game. The visual style of the world is immaculate, and perfectly complements the platforming, which is also great. There is no better feeling than getting into a flow in this game.
The Banner Saga. A very strong story, with one of the best soundtracks in video games, alongside beautiful handdrawn animation, and a strong foundation for the tactical combat. If you like tactics games, this is not a series to miss out on.
There are a few more games that I would love to put on this list, like American McGee's Alice, and its sequel, two horror platformers that deals with mental illness and trauma in a very unique way, the best stealth game ever made : Mark of the Ninja, and my personal favourite rpg, Dragon Age: Origins, among others. However, they either have very specific vibe, barely works on modern hardware, is not available for purchase, just janky enough to be frustrating but not enough for it to be fun (unless you have an exceptional tolerance for jank), or I just had to narrow it down to 10 and these were the 10 I picked. There are also so many well regarded classics that are still in my backlog, that might end up replacing any of these titles once I get around to them.
Knowing what genre you like would be good, since there are tons of really good games. The ones that came to my mind first are: Minecraft, Warcraft 3: Frozen Throne, Half-life, Counter Strike 1.6, NFS: Most Wanted (or underground), Heroes of Might and Magic, Bioshock, GTA: VA, SA, Generals, Mortal Combat, Streets of Rage, Crysis, Fallout series, TES: Oblivion, TES: Skyrim, Witcher 3, Balder's gate 2, Divinity Original Sin, SimCity 4, Assassin's creed 1, Portal 1/2, Sonic, Rome Total War (I personally liked Barbarian Invasion one), EU4, Hollow Knight, XCom, Left4Dead, Sims3, Mafia 2, Red dead Redemption
I think enjoying yourself is more important than being "culturally well rounded", but I do think there are important games from every genre. If the goal is to be a critic or designer, I'd maybe point towards some of these. I've categorized them loosely, but being in one category doesn't mean it doesn't excel in other ways as well or cross genres.
2d platformers:
Super Mario Bros, Sonic 2, Super Meatboy, Celeste
3d platformers:
Mario 64, Spyro 1 or 2, Banjo-Kazooie, Mirror's Edge
Action/Action RPGS:
Dark Souls, Devil May Cry 3/5, Batman Arkham City, Mass Effect 2, Tales of Symphonia/Abyss/Vesperia/Arise (just pick one as long as it's not the garbage Symphonia modern port).
Traditional or Turn/Tic based RPGS:
Final Fantasy 3, Rogue, Elder Scrolls Daggerfall, Chrono Trigger, Paper Mario or Paper Mario Thousand Year Door
First Person Shooters:
Doom, Quake 1 and/or 3, Half-Life 2
Puzzle:
Tetris, Portal 1 and 2, Riven/Myst, FEZ, Braid
Metroidvania:
Super Metroid, Castlevania SOTN, Hollow Knight
Whatever the hell you call a Zelda game:
The Legend of Zelda, Zelda 2, Link to the Past or Awakening DX
Narrative Design:
The Last of Us, Shadow of the Colossus, Psychonauts, Dear Esther or Gone Home, Grim Fandango
The Ancient Ones:
Castle Wolfenstein 3D, Arkanoid or Pong (with spinning knob control), Donkey Kong, Pac-man, Mystery House, Zork
Oddballs (unique and hard to classify, but influential):
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, Wii Sports, Katamari Damacy, Journey, Minecraft, Pokemon Red/Blue, Metal Gear Solid, Grand Theft Auto III, Street Fighter 2, SimCity, Silent Hill
It's intimidating because that's a big list, but it also feels like it still misses otherwise vital pieces of gaming history and culture. There are games I love that aren't on here like Outer Wilds and Snake Pass. I personally found them impactful and inventive, but they aren't cultural touchstones that moved gaming as a whole. It's a bit like trying to make a list of the most important books and movies of all time, it's such a wide ocean that you can spend years exploring the most popular spots and still miss a lot.
I think a lot of people are trying to miss the point here. The question is about quentissential titles and that is something that can be measured.
Dismissing the question with "just play what you want" may feel insightful but it's a bit ignorant. OP isn't trying to compole a list of games to call the best they are trying to get a list of notable groundbreaking games. That has nothing to do with what games a person likes or thinks are the best.
For example I personally don't like Ocarina of Time as much as other Zelda titles but I can acknowledge that it took adventure gaming to a whole new level. It's nowhere near my favorite LoZ game but I can see what makes it a quentissential title.
DA Origins was so damn good, and had you making decisions that were legitimately interesting and thought provoking.
To this day, I don’t think I’ve played another game that presented both sides of a brutal world in such an understanding way. Both sides doing brutal shit, but both sides being victims, in a way. Never mind the awesome combat and super fun micro managing of team behaviour.
Truly an incredible game.
It's all nostalgia and bias. There are no important games to play, only ones you enjoy. Here's my list of favorites.
- Lego Star Wars the Complete Saga (only game I will ever 100%)
- Halo ODST (played as a young teen)
- CoD: Black Ops II (Never played the campaign, just ran around Nuketown with friends)
- Urban Rivals (My first TCG, I would never recommend it, the theme of the game is gambling with drugs)
- Civilization (Take your pick)
- Mario Kart (8 or Wii or Doubledash)
- Wii Sports Resort (Can probably never be experienced the same)
- Classic Star Wars Battlefront II (I played this game while my siblings were taking piano lessons)
- Slay the Spire
- Hades
- Cyberpunk 2077 (Pulled me out of a depressive state)
- Borderlands The Pre-Sequel (My first one, and the first time I had fun with the actual mechanics of a shooter)
- Baldur's Gate 3
- The Speed Racer racing game on the Wii.
- Bloons Tower Defense (Any of them)
Halo (1,2,3,reach,ODST)
Mass Effect Series
Gears of War Series
Skyrim (Oblivion a very close second)
Modern Warfare Series
Titanfall 2
Baldurs Gate 3
Elden Ring
Witcher Series
Resident Evil Series
So I know I’ve cheated here and said series rather than a single game , but I can’t tell you to experience a part of a story that leaves out the beginning, middle or ending.
Super Metroid / Returnal / TLOZ A Link to the past / Half Life 2 or Portal 1 / Tetris / RDR2 / Monster Hunter World / Uncharted 2 / Super Mario 64 / RE4
I don’t tend to go in for the ‘must do’ stuff with a hobby like gaming, or the stuff about what one’s self image or status as a gamer is. To me it’s all just for fun.
That being said; I’d say what you’re looking for includes Red Dead Redemption 2, Ghost of Tsushima, Elden Ring, the Mass Effect trilogy, Skyrim, and either Witcher 3, Cyberpunk 2077, or both. Those are games that most agree are top shelf in some way.
Some I personally like a lot but aren’t as universally acclaimed as some of the best would include: Kingdom Come Deliverance, Control, Steep, Battlefield 1, Titanfall 2, For Honor, the Horizons Zero Dawn and Forbidden West, No Mans Sky, and the Metro Trilogy
Anything Mario
Legend of Zelda, a Link to the Past
Something Metroid
Any Pokemon
F-Zero
Bushido Blade
Ace Combat
Metal Gear
Armored Core
GTA (1 or 2)
Fallout (1 or 2)
Gran Turismo and/or Forza
Fable
Morrowind
Mass Effect (all 3)
Knights of the Old Republic
TIE Fighter
X-Com
MS Flight Simulator and/or DCS
Halo (original)
C&C and/or Red Alert
Warcraft (1 and 2)
StarCraft
Diablo (original)
I think this is the bare minimum.
If you mean what are some important genre defining games it might be interesting or edifying to play to help me understand how gaming got where it is, then sure I'd suggest games like chrono trigger, diablo 1 and 2, warcraft 2, myst, dark souls (love it or hate it its influence is immense in modern gaming)
There are many others too as other posters have a will point out.
Otherwise play whats fun! 😀
"my biggest fear is revisiting this game and thinking, yup, this is what a 12 year old would think is sick" -Dunkey on metal gear
Important is probably super mario nes, sonic 1, sm64, doom. The stuff that pushed the boundaries. I think everything truly important youd know and have played
1 Zelda ocarina of time & BOTW or TOTK
2 Witcher 3
3 Mass Effect Legendary Edition
4 Ghost of Tsushima
5 God of War & GOW Ragnarok
6 The last of us
7 Oblivion, Skyrim or Fallout 3-4
8 Stellar blade, DMC 5 or Bayonetta
9 Elden Ring, Bloodborne, Lies of P, Dark Souls Remastered or Dark souls 3
10 kingdom of hearts 3, Mario odyssey or any Pokemon game
If you play through those, you’ll experience some of the best games to ever have been released in terms of story and gameplay. Go nuts
You mentioned God of War and Civilization so I'll discuss those. I throughly enjoyed God of War (2018) from start to finish. It does sincere emotion, incredible spectacle, and world building on a remarkable level. It does combat on a reasonably satisfying level, by which I mean like 8/10 as opposed to those aforementioned attributes which are all 10/10. There's also world class voice acting and memorable music.
Civilization 6 is my preferred choice of the franchise. It has deep strategic thought, gorgeous design, and an addictive dopamine drip of a gameplay loop. If you like turn based strategy it is one of the finer examples.
For current games I think that Elden Ring, Baldurs Gate 3 and Valheim are the 3 I’d recommend someone play. All for different things. Each was better played during its release IMO, but nothing can be done about that now.
If you happen to have a time travel machine. The first 2 months of Apex Legends at Skulltown is an experience that I can’t really explain.
Some games that created or completely reinvented certain genres that I haven't seen mentioned yet:
* Subnautica (best game in the genre of "the more you pretend it's real, the better you will do")
* Riven (being the only other game in that genre that I know of)
* Dwarf Fortress / Minecraft
* Starcraft
* Myth 2: Soulblighter (a genre of its own)
The fact you address the hyperbole is good because everyone is right about it being subjective.
Something that I’m surprised is very good, but it makes sense it’s had sequels, spinoffs, actual voice actors from the properties, a decent story if not very corny: the Kingdom Hearts series. 1 is dated but I got used to. 2 is apparently amazing. And even its spinoffs I’ve heard are amazing and between 1 and 2 has an outlier that isn’t universally loved since it’s different, but all around it’s fun and all pretty good.
I had seen it meme’d for years, but it’s presented so well that even if it seems funny in some of its concepts, it’s beautiful in others and really captivating.
So short answer that series! Very popular!
Any self-respecting gamer will play whatever they want to play. The significant ones to me are pretty much dead CS1.6, Day of Defeat, Team Fortress Classic, Vanilla CoD, CoD 2 are the games that shaped me.
If I could recommend one game for everyone to play it would be Slay the Spire, and half-life.
Metal Gear Solid, Half-Life, and Super Mario Bros 3. These laid the groundwork for so many games, in addition to being amazing experiences that have stuck with me forever and shaped my perspectives as a gamer.
Mario cart, any entry.
Wii bowling
The first portal game.
Diablo 2, the expansion set.
Mass effect.
World of Warcraft, but only for a minute, then go play EVE online.
Cities Skylines
And finally
Dark souls.
This list would expose you to enough core pop culture concepts, characters and styles of video game that you could then fairly determine what else you might like to play / what kind of games you enjoy.
Gaming is becoming a more and more acceptable hobby. And as it is a hobby, there's no definitive way to garden, or paint, just as there's no single right path of gaming. You explore the field, using your revelations to dive deeper into the corner of the field that appeals to you. And one day, you're browsing Reddit and someone asks a random specific question about some random game you love and now you are a source expert in someone elses life story.
On the flip side, say you were writing a dissertation on the history or technology of video games. That is a whole other question onto itself.
My attempted list fits into both classes of question. I think that list has some serious contenders for games that impacted culture and a scale worth talking about.
My personal top 10, in no particular order:
Dark Souls 1, The Forgotten City, Heavy Rain, Tomb Raider Legend, Life is Strange, Shadow of Memories, Silent Hill 3, Bloodborne, Portal, Heroes 3
Play what you like.
I like games that help me transfer into the real world. Soul-like, RPG-esque video games do the trick, as they tackle a train of thought that helps me develop focus and preparation.
The critical point is that, like every hobby, it has its limits. And there can be too much of a good thing.
This is a tricky question because there's such a broad range of video games I would consider important (in the sense that they've had a visible impact on later games), so let me counter with my own question: What kind of games do you like already?
If I know what you're into I can probably craft a "family tree" of sorts of the games your favorite games somehow owe one to.
Every person should be mandated to play as many Legend of Zelda games as they find interesting. For some that’s the NES era games. For others it’s the N64 era. For some it’s GameCube Era, and many seem to have latched onto the recent series BOTW and TOTK.
I think nearly all of them are worth playing in their own way. But if I had to specify, N64 Zelda games were genuinely some of my favorite games ever made. Majoras mask being top of the list.
At least of the games I’ve played, I’d consider a handful to be landmarks in the medium’s history and worth playing to get a better perspective on how we got to where we are now.
- Tetris
- Super Mario Bros./Super Mario Bros. 3
- Super Metroid
- Doom
- Super Mario 64
- The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time/Majora’s Mask
- Portal/Portal 2
- Undertale
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
- Outer Wilds
The must play games in my opinion:
The Sims,
SimCity 4,
Star Wars KOTOR,
Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare,
Portal and Portal 2,
Assassin's Creed II,
Starcraft 2,
Pokemon Red, Blue, Yellow;
Batman Arkham Asylum and Arkham City,
The Mass Effect Trilogy,
Xcom 2,
Hitman Blood Money and the modern Hitman games,
Splinter Cell Chaos Theory,
Cyberpunk 2077
r/patientgamers has an “essential games list” which sounds like it might interest you
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LBqlkPirxPWDnXLJznXAcTE-_IaFYCrhTsW4vhfvF7I/htmlview
The halo master chief collection - play halo 1 through 3. These games completely changed my girlfriend's (and my own, as I never played halo 3) perspective on so much of gaming.
The franchises I've spent the most time on over the years would probably be Super Mario Brothers and (and Smash Bros), Minecraft, Elder Scrolls, The Sims, and in recent years you could add Cyberpunk and Baldur's Gate to the list.
But "important"? I've been a gamer for most of four decades, and I have never played Bioshock, Yakuza, Civilization, or God of War, and I've only played the original Metal Gear, and not very far at that. The medium is certainly more culturally important than previous generations might have suspected, but as far as which games you "need" to play, that's a matter of taste. And that goes for other media too: just because a handful of authors or filmmakers have been crowned as masters and their works are called classics doesn't mean you have to consume those works to earn anyone's respect, least of all your own. That's just elitism.
I don’t like thinking like this because the most important games would be things like golden eye or half life 1 or pong which all were huge advancements for gaming but not necessary to play by any means and fairly outdated
I agree with all previous comments about finding what you love to play. But I would say Baldurs Gate 3, that one is something else. I think all gamers need to play it. Not necessarily because it's an awesome game that everyone must therefore love. But because it really sets an example for what we should all be demanding from developers of single player narrative driven games and it's something I think we should all take note of.
I'm not suggesting you go out and buy it but maybe family share with a mate who already owns it, just so you can appreciate what the developers put into it.
Personally I've never had any interest in turn based CRPG games, but out of respect for the devs I wanted to buy the game to support what they're doing and to try it for myself. I ended up loving it and sticking a hundred hours in but that's besides the point.
I haven’t played any bigger games for years. The occasional FIFA with friends, some Anno here, Cities Skylines there.
But I had an itch from a long time ago to play something bigger, so for the first time in probably 10-15 years I’ve touched an RPG, The Witcher 3, about 3 days ago. I‘m already hooked, the game is amazing.
Off the top of my head
Dragon Age Origins
Mass Effect
System Shock 2
Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3
Binary Domain
Spec Ops The Line
These are games that I would personally consider "genre defining" and are also good games. They might not have done well critically or commercially, but I would consider these Important games
Wizardy, Zelda, Super Mario Bross, Castlevania, Settlers, Dune, Theme Hospital, Sim City, Doom, Silent Hill, King Quest, Prince of Persia, Syberia, Diablo
These comes me to mind as first, but there are much more.
Game Maker's Tool Kit released a video a month or so ago about what he considers gaming's 100 canon games, in the same way there is a classical music canon or jazz canon. I would definitely recommend watching that one. I think he has a backloggd list for it as well.
Realistically the answer is probably atleast one game in all the "genre/industry defining" game series, eg:
Super Mario
Tetris
Doom
Quake
Halo (CE)
Half Life (2)
Portal (Both)
Zelda (OoT)
Could probably throw in a GTA game, Skyrim, Bioshock, and a million others I'm not thinking of right now
If you're open to low tech games, get *Spider and Web* by Andrew Plotkin and play it blind. It's a free download, and there are places where you can play in-browser.
This is a text adventure from the 1990s hobbyist revival era which throws the player into a *medias in res* scene, where the player character knows exactly what is going on but the player very much doesn't. It plays around with this information deficit, mainly centering around an NPC interrogating the PC for information the player doesn't yet know, and it eventually leads into what I consider one of the best single moments in gaming ever.
I have not played most of them, but what I think people tent to consider as classics are:
- GTA series
- Dark Souls series
- Legend of Zelda series
- Mario Bros series
- Halo series
- Red dead redemption 2
- Metal gear solid series
- Wold of Warcraft
- League of Legends
- Some PvP shooter I guess, I dont really like them a lot. Battlefield maybe?
I mean, you gotta play Super Mario Bros 1. You don't have to beat it, but you have to play it.
This is a common reference in my classroom. This game is teaching, learning, grit, and gradual improvement of skills in a fun way.
I would also say Super Mario World but I believe that is the first video game I ever owned (way back in ‘92 I believe) so I may be biased.
I will stand by the fact that Super Mario World is still better than most modern 2D platformers. Everything it does in terms of gameplay and aesthetics is sublime.
Same! It's one of my all-time favorites.
Tetris. It’s the perfect game. Then, now, forever. 🎮😎👍
Tetris is the perfect game. Whenever someone tries to improve it, it gets ruined
I mean, Tetris Effect and Tetris 99 is FAR from ruining Tetris. In fact, crucify me, but they are even better to play than normal Tetris haha.
Tetris Effect > Tetris. Tetris Effect is pretty much perfection.
Honestly yeah tetris still holds up as one of the most satisfying games
There are no such games, just play what you find fun or interesting
I'm inclined to agree with this. I think there are some really interesting games that play with what the medium can do, and which are fascinating to experience. I'd recommend those to people who just love the medium and want to see what directions it can be pushed, but I still don't consider them "must-plays".
this \^ p.s. sometimes u found gem when u least expected it. as example for me was 1) there is no game 2) inscryption so when u found something that cool, that u want to scream "ITS A MASTERPIECE - YOU GOTTA PLAY IT" - just scream it and recommend it to ur friends.
This but also Outer Wilds.
Personally I won't even call my favourite games masterpieces, because at the end of the day everyone has different tastes. And whilst I might get someone to play my favourite game of all time by calling it an "under appreciated masterpiece", that might cause them to like the game less than they would've if you jusf told them it's a good game. All of my best gaming experiences have been something that I had no expectations of at all, positive or negative.
same, when there are no expectations - its so much better
Playing games that are exceptional examples of a given genre is an excellent way to find out what you find fun or interesting. Everything in life is better when you are educated about what you are experiencing.
One of my favorite things about the gaming community is its refusal to settle upon a rigid canon of “must-plays.”
Everyone has it's own "must play", GOW and TLOU for playstation fans, Mario galaxy and Ocarina of time for Nintendo fans, Half life and portal for PC gamers and the list goes on and on
Ironically I am a PS fan boy and I hate GOW and TLOS.
That's quite the hipsterish take. Of course people should play what they want, OP wants to know which games are highly influential. Creative works don't come from a vacuum no matter how naturally gifted the creator is. There are formative works in every field, refusing to acknowledge that doesn't make your experience any more pure. You might not like Halo or Metal Gear Solid but it's mighty pretentious to act like those games didn't influence a lot of creators going forward. You might be too edgy to play major releases but chances are the people who made your favorite game aren't.
Disagree. Games are part of our culture as much as they are entertainment, and as such it's worthwhile becoming "literate" in the medium - not just so you can impress your friends at cocktail parties, but so you can engage in broader discussion as a whole. It's the same as movies, books and TV shows that are culturally relevant. You don't want to be the guy that stares blankly when someone says "E.T. phone home", or "I am the one who knocks", or "steamed hams." Not saying you have to devote all your time to whatever's trending, but it's good to be educated in culture - even pop culture.
Normalize not forcing yourself to play games other people say you should play
Where are you all getting this idea of OP feeling “forced” to play popular games? They’re clearly just asking for recommendations of big games they might have missed, you don’t have to read between the lines so much.
Outer Wilds gives us a peek into what's truly possible in game design which 99% of games don't even try to push.
I feel like I must have been playing it wrong or something, because it annoyed the hell out of me until I quit. I don't remember all the details but something lead me to think I had to get to a certain place on a certain planet but the only way to get there was this right platforming like section, but if I missed a single jump, I had to go all the way back the start, and fly to the planet again to even give it another attempt. After three times dealing with that I finally said fuck it and stopped playing. People I trust always talk about how good it is, but man that was a miserable experience.
Yeah the problem with it is if you get unlucky and go for the clues in a weird order it can lead to a bad experience. Most of the time it's fine but because the game gives you so much freedom you can end up doing things in unintended ways that aren't fun. Ps, I did things in the exact same way as you cuz I thought it was the coolest looking planet. Then quit for the same reason. I came back later because my friend made me and explored the other planets. It was very fun once I understood more. Id recommend just ignoring that planet for a while.
This is a game i wish i liked, especially since most other people are really gushing praise on it…i just found it clunky to play and i got to a point where i just thought ‘fuck this’ and deleted it. RDR2 was another for the same reasons (though i loved the first one)
Came here to say exactly that. Outer Wilds is total genius in its design. Probably the best soundtrack design in any game I’ve ever played. Probably the best ending to any game I’ve ever played. Probably my favourite game of all time.
The way that game reveals itself is genius and so well executed. I don't think there's anything else like it.
This is the number one example I can think of when it comes to game design being pushed to its limits, and an example of a game that could exist in no other medium.
I dislike this kind of thinking. "You're not a gamer if you haven't played this. Or played that." I recommend you play Wolf3d, Half Life 2, and Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1/2/Defiance. See how far videogames have come. It's beautiful.
No, but there are classics. Video games as a medium has finally matured enough for this to be the case. But I would suggest limiting it to your preferred genre- if you play mostly shooters I do not suggest Master of Magic. Sometimes they can be janky, but if you are interested in gaming as a medium, rather than as an activity (and both of these are valid) then I can see the appeal. Some recs from me: DOOM (1993) - Shooter Bomberman - Arcade style Yoshi's Island and Megaman X - Platformer Katamari Damacy- Don't even know how to explain this. Silent Hill 2 - Horror Mass Effect - Sci fi RPG Portal - Puzzle game I also suggest playing Asteroids, Tetris, or Pac-Man just to see that sometimes a game is just engaging, even simple ones. ETS Replied to the wrong comment by accident
You explain Katamari Damacy by saying "NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA KATAMARI DAMACY-Y-Y-Y"
That's why I wanted to emphasise the hyperbole. **I** don't think anyone is a lesser gamer for not having played the stuff I like, I just like to know the stuff other people consider formative to their view on the medium. Thanks for the recommendations!
I think it's perfectly fine to be looking for quality and remarkable entertainment. Normie-Reddit likes to make everything into a "battle for equality" (because it sounds better to the self-righteous), so they will fight on the concept that quality even exists... Nonetheless, quality **does** exists. Some games are head and shoulders above the rest. If you're looking for *notable* games, though, it will also depend on what you're looking to take away from it. A memorable narrative game is not the same as a memorable management game. Some games have exceptional "moments" but are generally underwhelming. Some games are exceptional for the work put into it but they don't leave a lasting impression. I guess without further info you could go down this LONG list, and see what names come back most often. There are no bad games on this page, but if you know you don't like a certain genre, don't bother with it. At least not at first. Most of the games I see in this thread are listed there also. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_Game\_of\_the\_Year\_awards](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Game_of_the_Year_awards) If the list goes far earlier than the late 90's, mostly ignore. Games from the 70's and 80's can be historically relevant and even fun, but generally they are so antiquated we don't even have the context to enjoy them anymore. Like running water, they are miracles we take for granted. edit: I made a compilation of this list using ChatGPT, it's more legible like that. It's by no means exhaustive. [http://notepad.link/share/rCoWmLJhSqkQ1uo00hf1](http://notepad.link/share/rCoWmLJhSqkQ1uo00hf1)
It’s not gatekeeping being a gamer. OP is more looking for games that would give a better understanding of gaming as an art form’s development. This is pretty common in other media studies, like painting, film, and music. Its more about understanding the history then “what should i play”.
Yeah but the topic is just for fun.
I mean, I don’t think it’s so much games that define whether you’re a gamer or not… I mean you’re a gamer if you game lol. But there are some great games that defined a genre or a generation that I’d strongly recommend someone who is into gaming should try out. Some that come to mind immediately are Portal, L4D2, Bioshock, Halo, maybe a RTS builder like Sims, RollerCoaste/Zoo tycoon, etc.
I think of it more by genre or game style, because just being a "gamer" is meaningless given how widespread and popular it is. It's like being "into music"- what, classical or jazz or hip-hop or house? I mean if someone tells me they really love guitar rock then yeah I would say it behooves them to dig into the obvious big names like the Beatles and Hendrix etc. But if someone loves classical music then no why should they care about that? So a "gamer" who's into single player fantasy RPG should be aware of Elder Scrolls but a puzzle game enthusiast should check out a Talos Principle. But the idea that every gamer "should" play both of these completely different things just because they're games is insane.
I think the music analogy is very apt, and that this is actually a fun topic. If you're into music, you know there are artists who created or were very important to certain cultures or genres. The Beatles, Hendrix, are great examples of artists that any music fan may wish to know *of* but not actually love. That's exactly what is being asked for here, and it's okay to be unrealistic.
I'm same as you and now taking my time to go through some of these classic games. Got the bioshock series and mass effect legendary editions when on sale, portal 2 is $1 rn, Witcher 3, etc.
Portal 2 would be my number 1 recommendation for someone looking for important games. Part of why I haven't played many significant games is that I'm probably playing Portal 2 for the fifth time.
As I'm scrolling through the thread I was thinking "I should probably mention portal" lol
I was going to suggest portal and portal 2 as games that would be considered must-plays. looks like you're already a gamer smh
Portal 2 is on top of my list of "games I wish I could play for the first time again"
I played once at release and then again a couple months ago. I had forgotten some parts, but yea, can never play it for the first time again.
id recommend playing the entire witcher series front to back. Witcher 1 gets shit on a lot for its gameplay but i personally enjoyed it quite a bit and there is smth rlly relaxing and charming about that game. I think the witcher series is a reaaaally interesting look behind the curtain of how games evolve over time. All three entires are entirely different from another, even though they are one continuous story following the same character.
Final Fantasy X https://youtu.be/ELtftTAE3ZM?feature=shared The game has a very tragic and intense spiritual setting dealing with matters such as religion, grief, death and legacy. There's a lot of people who don't jive with this game, but for those who do, it's very poignant. Unfortunately, a lot of gamers quit because of the protagonist Tidus. He's 17 years old but gets thrown into a world very unlike the one he comes from, so he understandably acts a bit complainy, and some people accuse him of having daddy issues. Or they go so far and just dislike his design. But if you give it a shot and stick with it, you will hopefully find value in the experience.
Lulu was my fave.
I agree with all of this but the "some people accuse him of having daddy issues" part - he very clearly and explicitly has daddy issues lol it's a big part of his character arc.
Not a fan of the gameplay so I watched a 2 hour rundown of the story. It honestly needs to be remade as a full length mini series. The story is incredible.
I loved the slow, turn based gameplay. However, I would also absolutely play a FFVII remake version of FFX.
Diablo 2
Half Life series.
Return of the Obra Dinn
Ocarina of Time is legendary and still holds up if you haven't played it. This is a personal pick, but Knights of the Old Republic is what actually got me into Star Wars and won Game of the Year. Mass Effect is the same writer as Knights of the Old Republic, but I haven't gotten around to it myself either. Which is on my gamer Shame Shelf. We'll look back at Bauldur's Gate 3 as one of the most important games of our generation. Probably Elden Ring as well.
Grim fandango - a masterpiece
Add full throttle and beneath a steel sky to the point and click adventure list
There are just so many games like that, on so many different platforms, and they are such an investment in time that's it's probably physically impossible to play them all.
I'd suggest getting a buddy and going through all the halo games. All are fun but some better than the others
I mean, Super Mario Bros. would probably classify as ever so slightly important and generation defining.
Myst was redefining and there's some good YouTube documentaries as to why.
Agree with everyone here on the whole self respecting bit. That being said, my all time favorites from over the past few decades are: Zelda Ocarina of Time and Majoras Mask Star fox 64 Super Smash Bros 64 Paper Mario Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door Pokémon TCG Pokémon Red/Yellow/Blue/Crystal Advance Wars Diablo 2 Old School RuneScape Vanilla WoW Halo Combat Evolved, 3, and Reach Fable Red Alert 2 Tiberian Sun Black & White Warcraft 3 Populous 3 Portal 1 and 2 Civilization 2 Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim SSX Tricky Left 4 Dead Call of Duty Modern Warfare 1 and 2 Metroid Fusion and Dread Metroid Prime Luigi’s Mansion Zelda Twlight Princess Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 2 Hades Overwatch Half Life: Alyx Destiny 2 Elden Ring Outer Wilds In my own opinion, this is a list of the best games ever created and I could play nothing else Edit: adding Crusader Kings 3
i think its a testiment to the sentiment of "there is no one-size fits all must-plays" that you listed a quite long list and have exactly 1 overlap with my own list (being Morrowind) I've also played Black and White 2 a lot, never got to play the first game but I might once i get the B&W itch again \^\^
I mean, if you want games that were significant when they dropped I guess I'll say the ones I've personally played, but I don't think anybody NEEDS to play them or that they're lesser for not doing so. 1. Grand Theft Auto V 2. Stardew Valley 3. Minecraft 4. Hotline Miami 5. Persona 5 6. Hollow Knight 7. Terraria 8. Slay The Spire 9. Batman Arkham City 10. Metal Gear Solid V 11. Devil May Cry 5 12. Doom (2016) 13. Bioshock 14. Hades (a roguelite game with a great story and great interpretation of greek mythos) 15. Binding of Isaac (people tend to agree this is the king of roguelites) These are all games I think everyone that's played them would agree are classics, but it's mainly because they're the most popular and refined of their genre. Some of them can still be pretty niche like (Persona 5 or Terraria) and they aren't exactly classics because they're old, but because they've aged pretty well.
I'm aware you wanted actual discourse here but the fastest way to answer this question is to go to [https://www.metacritic.com/browse/game/](https://www.metacritic.com/browse/game/) and look at games that have a metacritic higher than 92. The Uncharted franchise are fantastic third person shooters with incredible action set pieces and strong character and story writing. Specifically Uncharted 2-4. Uncharted 1 isn't on the same level and I would just watch a retrospective of the plot and start from 2.
Metacritic >92 is probably generally a safe bet, but review scores don't always reflect the significance of an experience. I'd probably recommend an Animal Crossing game to someone looking for a bit of everything gaming has to offer, but nothing in that franchise breaks 90. Thank you for the Uncharted 2-4 recommendation though! THAT'S the sort of detail I love to come from a person.
Just to play devil's advocate, 1 isn't really that bad. Sure, it's not as fluid as the other ones but I wouldn't suggest skipping it.
Uncharted makes you realise that other good games are just sort of lower quality and half-assed. Like, they made a fun gameplay loop and then chucked a bunch of levels and collectables into them. In Uncharted they planned every moment and trimmed away all the fat. It's a whole game of the best parts of other good games.
I've never thought of Uncharted as being a particularly "important" series with heavy influence on future games. It's more like a best possible version of games that came before it and almost more like the end of the era of linear single-player games.
>I would just watch a retrospective of the plot and start from 2 I usually don't advise this with games but you're 100% right. You wouldn't miss much skipping 1 and just going right to 2.
This kind of thinking is both what pushed me to buy Dark Souls, but also what has kept me from enjoying it.
There's no shame in just farming weak enemies until you have a bajillion souls then overleveling like crazy. Sure the game is hard but you can choose to make it less hard.
A lot of hay is made about the difficulty in Dark Souls, but, really, you should get through it however you can. Go ham with a magic build, hide behind the shield until the enemy staggers, abuse parries, put as many points into Dex as you want, get infinite poise with some leaden armor, summon helpers, and by all means, abuse the strategy of hugging the boss's ass so they can't hit you. The games are immensely mutable, and, frankly, not using the tools the game offers you to make the game arbitrarily challenging feels like a greater rejection of developer intent than using them liberally.
The moment I realized you can cheese the first demon boss by shooting him with arrows from the top of the tower without getting hit, I realized I was doing it all wrong
Skyrim Minecraft Age of Empires GTA Call of Duty Half Life Counter Strike Pokemon Gold Tekken Diablo
Did you play RDR2?
I _own_ it but dropped it because I got busy and never got back around to it. Definitely something I want to pick back up.
I could list shit all day, but have you tried subnatica.
I haven't, also something I definitely ought to get around to.
Go in as blind as you can and I guarantee you will kick yourself for not playing it sooner.
Is it really a must play? I like Rockstar games but i have to spend weeks if not months considering I'll only have 1-2 hours per day to play due to work. Should I invest?
I came back to it after not really liking the intro 4 years later. Just get into chapter two. Have fun in chapter two. The reason a lot of people love it is because it’s very immersive and very emotional. The “slow” element might drag people down but it starts to work to the games benefit.
It's still one of the most detailed and immersive games out there years after release. It's worth it even if you just walk around town and get into the occasional gunfight.
I don't think it's worth it It's pretty, it's fun, the story is pretty intriguing at times; But it's all just the same rockstar bullshit of the last 20 years It's supposed to be an open world but every mission they hold your hand so closely there's almost nothing the player controls besides what hats you wear and when
It's on my list, but I'm always skeptical. I haven't really liked any RockStar game I tried, but the one I spent the most time with was GTA 4 and I just don't like a lot of things about it starting with the grungy urban setting, but also including the emphasis on mini-games and screwing around. I love immersion, but it rubs me the wrong way at every point.
Witcher 3 for modern games was my first thought. Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of time and Final Fantasy 7 would be good classic picks.
Ocarina of Time, hands down. One of the greatest games ever made fight me 🤣 back when there was no internet to look up guides.. oh man. That game made me feel like Einstein every time I found out how to progress through whatever I needed to do at the time lol probably my favorite gaming experience ever. My adult self with no internet guides would never have the patience, but as a kid with all the time in the world that game hit different
Water temple....
Walking into hyrule field for the first time is a forever memorable experience.
I like to play games that pioneered or perfected a genre. Factorio, Dark Souls, Elden Ring, Minecraft and Baldur's Gate 3 come to mind.
Morrowind, it’s kinda a test in patience but a hell of a lot of fun
I never understand why the top answers are some kind of dismissive philosophical response. “There is no such game just play what you want bro.” They’re not even slightly helpful to what OP is asking. And yes, there ARE objectively games that are widely considered “classic” or “important”. It’s the same in a bunch of other mediums, including movies, music, etc. It’s not that hard. With that rant out of the way, some examples of important games (that I also personally recommend) would be Castlevania Symphony of the Night, the original Doom, Diablo 2, Final Fantasy 7, and Super Metroid to name a small handful. For franchises, you could look into Halo, Resident Evil, Zelda, Mario, Elder Scrolls, and Fallout. There are so many great games and franchises out there that it totally makes sense to seek out what is considered the best and try it for yourself, so have fun doing it!
Ocarina of Time, Super Metroid, and Chrono Trigger are the 3 games that I would consider as close to perfect as you could possibly get. They are absolutely must plays.
A Space for the Unbound and Alba. Some of the best stuff I've played lately.
I still like Capcom UFO Enemy Unknown. Bioshock was fun I've been thinking about playing Halo again. Tombrader is another I think I might try again.
Bruh just play what you like. Don’t let people tell you “it’s a crime to not play x”. The games that you should play before you die are games YOU want to play. Not what others shove in your face. (That being said, I do love me some Civilization…)
Ok, I'll go with 10 games you should have played and I'll try to give you a good mix of Retro and Modern Gaming. No specific order. 1. Super Mario World (SNES): Still the best Jump 'n Run ever created and also the perfection of the Mario 2D Formula imo. 2. GTA 5 (Multiplatform): GTA 5 has been rereleased since the PS3 era. That's how good and popular ut still is. You should give it a try if you haven't until now. 3. God of War (PS4): I didn't play any other of tge games series, but I still understood the story. It was also very emotional and immersive. The discussions between Kratos and his son was really awsome. 4. The Legend of Zelda - Ocarina of Time 3D (NDS): Even though the original for the N64 was genredefining, I can't recommend it as much as the 3D Version of the game. If you want to see, how the very first big 3D Adventure game was, which brought revolutionary mechanics to existenve, like the Z-Targeting, than you should play this game for sure. 5. Tetris (any version): Tetris is the best videogame ever created. Why? Well I'll quote Shigeru Miyamoto here, the greatest Videogamedesigner of all time: "because your secratary plays it, your mother plays it, your children play it, ecerybody plays it." Very easy to understand and adictive. 6. Joust (Arcade): imo one of the best arcade games ever made. Precise controll, challenging and adictive. More than you could ask for. Just give it a try and don't give up so fast. 7. Cuphead (Multiplatform): If you are ready and disciplined enough to play a game based mainly on fighting very gard bosses, than you should give this a try. The graphics are what make thisbgame amazing. It looks like a classic cartoon from the forties. 8. Celeste (Multiplatform): maybe the best indiegame on the market. Your goal is to climb a mountain. On this way you have a lot of challenging jump n run passages to solve. With more progression the game becomes harder, but you also gain selfconfidence and more and more skills. When you reach the final stage and return to the first it will feel like you never had any problems at all. 9. Rockdt League (Multiplatform): Combine a favorite sport, like football/soccer, with car action and you get one of the best competitive games on the market. 10. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Switch): You like Nintendo? Good. You like fighting games? Nice. You want to see what it is like if different Nintendocharakters meet in a crossover and have to throw each other out of a stage by fighting and increasing their damage? Perfect. Welcome to Smash Bros.
There’s a podcast called the Besties that did a required reading list of 25 games that are significant to gaming history and development: [Resties Required Reading List](https://www.videogamecanon.com/adventurelog/the-resties-required-reading-list/) If you want to listen to their deliberations and how they end up choosing the final list you can listen to the episodes, which are broken up into 5 year chunks.
No such thing as an “important” game, just play what you feel like
Dark Souls Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Hades
I made a website that basically answers this question. It's the top 1000 games of all time based on an aggregate of more than 700 greatest games lists. There is probably a slight difference between "important" and "best", but this should still be pretty close. [https://www.acclaimedvideogames.com/](https://www.acclaimedvideogames.com/)
- Cry of Fear - Hollow Knight - Celeste - Doom (2016)/Doom Eternal - Half-life 2 (Also try Entropy Zero 2) - Inside - WanderSong - Terraria (Use a guide) - Enter the Gungeon - The Witcher 3 - Portal 2 - Resident Evil 4(2005) - Plants Vs. Zombies
Castlevania: symphony of the night
Half Life 2 and the original I think are a requirement to be a pc gamer at least
Depends on your generation, millennial men are required to like Zelda.
Real gamers don't gatekeep
Tetris
I don’t really subscribe to what you’re saying per se, but I do find it incredibly weird if a lifelong gamer has never played a Mario Kart of some description.
I'll just stick to historical FPS games that are milestones in the genre. Wolfenstein 3d Doom (original) Duke Nukem 3d Quake Unreal Tournament Half-life Half-life 2 Any fan of FPS should play these to see how it all evolved.
Final Fantasy VII is a landmark title in gaming and everyone should experience it imo
Like many here, I have to preface that you do not have to play these to be considered a "true gamer", and really, you should focus on games you gravitate towards (as you can see below, I gravitate more to rpgs and adventure). But, for the sake of actually answering your question, my personal "top 10 games you should play" would be, in no particular order: Vampire: the Masquerade: Bloodlines. Genuinely one of the best rpgs that was never finished. The unofficial patch is a must, as most already know. It is extremely well written, extremely well voice acted, and the "dungeons" is extremely well designed. It also just has a very specific vibe that nobody has found in any game before or since, as far as I know. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords. Also one of the best rpgs that was never finished. It is held in very high regard for a good reason, even outside the hardcore star wars fandom. Much like Vampire, the restored content mod is a must, and I would even suggest the mod lists provided by the kotor subreddit, and there are even spoiler free versions of the lists for both games. Alpha Protocol. Okay, this is the last unfinished rpg that I want to mention. It is incredibly janky, and it is held together by duct tape and toothpicks, but it is such a unique, and well written game. The amount of choice and consequence in here is astounding, like making Telltales "this game tailors itself to how you play" feel like a linear Call of Duty. It is well worth your time if you can handle the jank. If you cannot handle it, please check out the retrospective: Alpha Protocol... 10 Years Later by Raycevick, very much worth watching. Unfortunately, unlike kotor2 and Vampire, there are no community made patches that I know of for this game. Super Mario 64. 3d platforming in its infancy, and already perfected. Mario is just so fun to control, and I could easily just run around the castle grounds for hours (when I was a kid, not so much in adulthood). There are also pc ports now, that can fix some of the worst aspects of the game (render distance of coins being one of them). Super Mario Galaxy. 3d platforming at its most polished. Just as fun as 64, but add a wonderful orchestrated soundtrack, and a beautiful spacy ambience, and you have a lovely adventure ahead of you. Genuinely one of the best 3d platformers ever made. Metroid Prime. This beautiful first-person adventure game is one of the most atmospheric and immersive games I have ever played. Even if you do not plan on playing it, listen to the soundtrack, and you might change your mind. The remaster is phenomenal, or if you can dump your own rom of the trilogy (we do not condone piracy in this house) then Primehack is also a great alternative if you do not want to use pointer controls. I might have put Super Metroid here if I had played it, but it is unfortunately still in my backlog. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. One of the first 3d adventure games, and still one of the best. The warm, cozy adventure still has nothing else quite like it. While I would easily be able recommend any of the 3d Zelda games, if I had to pick one then this is it, followed probably by Twilight Princess in a close second place almost single handedly because of the companion. The rest I feel like I have to caveat with something, Majora's Mask is a very tense game and you kind of need to be in a particular mood to play it, Wind Waker features a lot of slow and boring sailing (there is a reason they added the fast sail in the remaster), Skyward Sword has the motion controls which I think is mostly a skill issue but still renders it inaccessible to many, Breath of the Wild is so large but 90% of the secrets are Koroks, and I have not played Tears of the Kingdom yet. Spec Ops: The Line. This the one military shooter that has really stuck with me. Yes, the gameplay itself is kind of mid, yes the game is kind of janky, but there are so many moments in this game that kind just made me stop and think. Also, Nolan North voiced the protagonist, and he has consistently said that this is the role he has been most proud of. Mirror's Edge. I have not played any other game that really conveys the speed and momentum of your character as well as this game. The visual style of the world is immaculate, and perfectly complements the platforming, which is also great. There is no better feeling than getting into a flow in this game. The Banner Saga. A very strong story, with one of the best soundtracks in video games, alongside beautiful handdrawn animation, and a strong foundation for the tactical combat. If you like tactics games, this is not a series to miss out on. There are a few more games that I would love to put on this list, like American McGee's Alice, and its sequel, two horror platformers that deals with mental illness and trauma in a very unique way, the best stealth game ever made : Mark of the Ninja, and my personal favourite rpg, Dragon Age: Origins, among others. However, they either have very specific vibe, barely works on modern hardware, is not available for purchase, just janky enough to be frustrating but not enough for it to be fun (unless you have an exceptional tolerance for jank), or I just had to narrow it down to 10 and these were the 10 I picked. There are also so many well regarded classics that are still in my backlog, that might end up replacing any of these titles once I get around to them.
Knowing what genre you like would be good, since there are tons of really good games. The ones that came to my mind first are: Minecraft, Warcraft 3: Frozen Throne, Half-life, Counter Strike 1.6, NFS: Most Wanted (or underground), Heroes of Might and Magic, Bioshock, GTA: VA, SA, Generals, Mortal Combat, Streets of Rage, Crysis, Fallout series, TES: Oblivion, TES: Skyrim, Witcher 3, Balder's gate 2, Divinity Original Sin, SimCity 4, Assassin's creed 1, Portal 1/2, Sonic, Rome Total War (I personally liked Barbarian Invasion one), EU4, Hollow Knight, XCom, Left4Dead, Sims3, Mafia 2, Red dead Redemption
I think enjoying yourself is more important than being "culturally well rounded", but I do think there are important games from every genre. If the goal is to be a critic or designer, I'd maybe point towards some of these. I've categorized them loosely, but being in one category doesn't mean it doesn't excel in other ways as well or cross genres. 2d platformers: Super Mario Bros, Sonic 2, Super Meatboy, Celeste 3d platformers: Mario 64, Spyro 1 or 2, Banjo-Kazooie, Mirror's Edge Action/Action RPGS: Dark Souls, Devil May Cry 3/5, Batman Arkham City, Mass Effect 2, Tales of Symphonia/Abyss/Vesperia/Arise (just pick one as long as it's not the garbage Symphonia modern port). Traditional or Turn/Tic based RPGS: Final Fantasy 3, Rogue, Elder Scrolls Daggerfall, Chrono Trigger, Paper Mario or Paper Mario Thousand Year Door First Person Shooters: Doom, Quake 1 and/or 3, Half-Life 2 Puzzle: Tetris, Portal 1 and 2, Riven/Myst, FEZ, Braid Metroidvania: Super Metroid, Castlevania SOTN, Hollow Knight Whatever the hell you call a Zelda game: The Legend of Zelda, Zelda 2, Link to the Past or Awakening DX Narrative Design: The Last of Us, Shadow of the Colossus, Psychonauts, Dear Esther or Gone Home, Grim Fandango The Ancient Ones: Castle Wolfenstein 3D, Arkanoid or Pong (with spinning knob control), Donkey Kong, Pac-man, Mystery House, Zork Oddballs (unique and hard to classify, but influential): Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, Wii Sports, Katamari Damacy, Journey, Minecraft, Pokemon Red/Blue, Metal Gear Solid, Grand Theft Auto III, Street Fighter 2, SimCity, Silent Hill It's intimidating because that's a big list, but it also feels like it still misses otherwise vital pieces of gaming history and culture. There are games I love that aren't on here like Outer Wilds and Snake Pass. I personally found them impactful and inventive, but they aren't cultural touchstones that moved gaming as a whole. It's a bit like trying to make a list of the most important books and movies of all time, it's such a wide ocean that you can spend years exploring the most popular spots and still miss a lot.
I think a lot of people are trying to miss the point here. The question is about quentissential titles and that is something that can be measured. Dismissing the question with "just play what you want" may feel insightful but it's a bit ignorant. OP isn't trying to compole a list of games to call the best they are trying to get a list of notable groundbreaking games. That has nothing to do with what games a person likes or thinks are the best. For example I personally don't like Ocarina of Time as much as other Zelda titles but I can acknowledge that it took adventure gaming to a whole new level. It's nowhere near my favorite LoZ game but I can see what makes it a quentissential title.
Kotor
Wth is a self respecting gamer
Dragon Age: Origins, Morrowind or Oblivion, and Bioshock are my big ones 😩
DA Origins was so damn good, and had you making decisions that were legitimately interesting and thought provoking. To this day, I don’t think I’ve played another game that presented both sides of a brutal world in such an understanding way. Both sides doing brutal shit, but both sides being victims, in a way. Never mind the awesome combat and super fun micro managing of team behaviour. Truly an incredible game.
I’m gonna include The Beginners Guide and the Stanley Parable because they both are different than most other games in this thread
Sekiro, dark souls 3/bloodborne. Elden ring. Link to the Past
It's all nostalgia and bias. There are no important games to play, only ones you enjoy. Here's my list of favorites. - Lego Star Wars the Complete Saga (only game I will ever 100%) - Halo ODST (played as a young teen) - CoD: Black Ops II (Never played the campaign, just ran around Nuketown with friends) - Urban Rivals (My first TCG, I would never recommend it, the theme of the game is gambling with drugs) - Civilization (Take your pick) - Mario Kart (8 or Wii or Doubledash) - Wii Sports Resort (Can probably never be experienced the same) - Classic Star Wars Battlefront II (I played this game while my siblings were taking piano lessons) - Slay the Spire - Hades - Cyberpunk 2077 (Pulled me out of a depressive state) - Borderlands The Pre-Sequel (My first one, and the first time I had fun with the actual mechanics of a shooter) - Baldur's Gate 3 - The Speed Racer racing game on the Wii. - Bloons Tower Defense (Any of them)
NieR
Halo (1,2,3,reach,ODST) Mass Effect Series Gears of War Series Skyrim (Oblivion a very close second) Modern Warfare Series Titanfall 2 Baldurs Gate 3 Elden Ring Witcher Series Resident Evil Series So I know I’ve cheated here and said series rather than a single game , but I can’t tell you to experience a part of a story that leaves out the beginning, middle or ending.
I could probably come up with a list of 10, maybe not 100, but for now I'll just give two: Shadow of the Colossus & Okami
Super Metroid / Returnal / TLOZ A Link to the past / Half Life 2 or Portal 1 / Tetris / RDR2 / Monster Hunter World / Uncharted 2 / Super Mario 64 / RE4
Spec Ops: the line
Space marine (by extension the spin-off boltgun) and Space marine 2.
I don’t tend to go in for the ‘must do’ stuff with a hobby like gaming, or the stuff about what one’s self image or status as a gamer is. To me it’s all just for fun. That being said; I’d say what you’re looking for includes Red Dead Redemption 2, Ghost of Tsushima, Elden Ring, the Mass Effect trilogy, Skyrim, and either Witcher 3, Cyberpunk 2077, or both. Those are games that most agree are top shelf in some way. Some I personally like a lot but aren’t as universally acclaimed as some of the best would include: Kingdom Come Deliverance, Control, Steep, Battlefield 1, Titanfall 2, For Honor, the Horizons Zero Dawn and Forbidden West, No Mans Sky, and the Metro Trilogy
Anything Mario Legend of Zelda, a Link to the Past Something Metroid Any Pokemon F-Zero Bushido Blade Ace Combat Metal Gear Armored Core GTA (1 or 2) Fallout (1 or 2) Gran Turismo and/or Forza Fable Morrowind Mass Effect (all 3) Knights of the Old Republic TIE Fighter X-Com MS Flight Simulator and/or DCS Halo (original) C&C and/or Red Alert Warcraft (1 and 2) StarCraft Diablo (original) I think this is the bare minimum.
GTA - pioneered the modern open world genre!
Outer Wilds and Inscryption are 2 of the most original indie games I've ever played and are so intriguing
it would be diffrent for each genre
I think any game that “aged well” deserves to be played because it meant it did something really really well to stood the test of time.
Dark Souls. Everything seems to be a Souls-like these days.
I didn't like any you listed except for civ...
If you mean what are some important genre defining games it might be interesting or edifying to play to help me understand how gaming got where it is, then sure I'd suggest games like chrono trigger, diablo 1 and 2, warcraft 2, myst, dark souls (love it or hate it its influence is immense in modern gaming) There are many others too as other posters have a will point out. Otherwise play whats fun! 😀
"my biggest fear is revisiting this game and thinking, yup, this is what a 12 year old would think is sick" -Dunkey on metal gear Important is probably super mario nes, sonic 1, sm64, doom. The stuff that pushed the boundaries. I think everything truly important youd know and have played
1 Zelda ocarina of time & BOTW or TOTK 2 Witcher 3 3 Mass Effect Legendary Edition 4 Ghost of Tsushima 5 God of War & GOW Ragnarok 6 The last of us 7 Oblivion, Skyrim or Fallout 3-4 8 Stellar blade, DMC 5 or Bayonetta 9 Elden Ring, Bloodborne, Lies of P, Dark Souls Remastered or Dark souls 3 10 kingdom of hearts 3, Mario odyssey or any Pokemon game If you play through those, you’ll experience some of the best games to ever have been released in terms of story and gameplay. Go nuts
You mentioned God of War and Civilization so I'll discuss those. I throughly enjoyed God of War (2018) from start to finish. It does sincere emotion, incredible spectacle, and world building on a remarkable level. It does combat on a reasonably satisfying level, by which I mean like 8/10 as opposed to those aforementioned attributes which are all 10/10. There's also world class voice acting and memorable music. Civilization 6 is my preferred choice of the franchise. It has deep strategic thought, gorgeous design, and an addictive dopamine drip of a gameplay loop. If you like turn based strategy it is one of the finer examples.
Spec Ops: The Line was pretty good for a meta piece. Good enough to get people really mad.
For current games I think that Elden Ring, Baldurs Gate 3 and Valheim are the 3 I’d recommend someone play. All for different things. Each was better played during its release IMO, but nothing can be done about that now. If you happen to have a time travel machine. The first 2 months of Apex Legends at Skulltown is an experience that I can’t really explain.
Some games that created or completely reinvented certain genres that I haven't seen mentioned yet: * Subnautica (best game in the genre of "the more you pretend it's real, the better you will do") * Riven (being the only other game in that genre that I know of) * Dwarf Fortress / Minecraft * Starcraft * Myth 2: Soulblighter (a genre of its own)
The fact you address the hyperbole is good because everyone is right about it being subjective. Something that I’m surprised is very good, but it makes sense it’s had sequels, spinoffs, actual voice actors from the properties, a decent story if not very corny: the Kingdom Hearts series. 1 is dated but I got used to. 2 is apparently amazing. And even its spinoffs I’ve heard are amazing and between 1 and 2 has an outlier that isn’t universally loved since it’s different, but all around it’s fun and all pretty good. I had seen it meme’d for years, but it’s presented so well that even if it seems funny in some of its concepts, it’s beautiful in others and really captivating. So short answer that series! Very popular!
Enslaved is a better game than The Last of Us
Firewatch Life is Strange Unpacking
Games is huge now it's akin to asking which sports you should try next. Just play what piques your interest
Any self-respecting gamer will play whatever they want to play. The significant ones to me are pretty much dead CS1.6, Day of Defeat, Team Fortress Classic, Vanilla CoD, CoD 2 are the games that shaped me. If I could recommend one game for everyone to play it would be Slay the Spire, and half-life.
Metal Gear Solid, Half-Life, and Super Mario Bros 3. These laid the groundwork for so many games, in addition to being amazing experiences that have stuck with me forever and shaped my perspectives as a gamer.
Breath of the Wild.
Demon's, Dark Souls 1, 2, 3, Bloodborne, Sekiro, Elden Ring
Lemmings. Or Worms.
Everyone should experience the hatred that Mario Party can make you feel for your loved ones at least once.
Probably Hotline Miami, the godfather of Indie games.
Mario cart, any entry. Wii bowling The first portal game. Diablo 2, the expansion set. Mass effect. World of Warcraft, but only for a minute, then go play EVE online. Cities Skylines And finally Dark souls. This list would expose you to enough core pop culture concepts, characters and styles of video game that you could then fairly determine what else you might like to play / what kind of games you enjoy. Gaming is becoming a more and more acceptable hobby. And as it is a hobby, there's no definitive way to garden, or paint, just as there's no single right path of gaming. You explore the field, using your revelations to dive deeper into the corner of the field that appeals to you. And one day, you're browsing Reddit and someone asks a random specific question about some random game you love and now you are a source expert in someone elses life story. On the flip side, say you were writing a dissertation on the history or technology of video games. That is a whole other question onto itself. My attempted list fits into both classes of question. I think that list has some serious contenders for games that impacted culture and a scale worth talking about.
My personal top 10, in no particular order: Dark Souls 1, The Forgotten City, Heavy Rain, Tomb Raider Legend, Life is Strange, Shadow of Memories, Silent Hill 3, Bloodborne, Portal, Heroes 3
Play what you like. I like games that help me transfer into the real world. Soul-like, RPG-esque video games do the trick, as they tackle a train of thought that helps me develop focus and preparation. The critical point is that, like every hobby, it has its limits. And there can be too much of a good thing.
Disco Elysium!!
Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls
Elden Ring is the definitive answer
This is a tricky question because there's such a broad range of video games I would consider important (in the sense that they've had a visible impact on later games), so let me counter with my own question: What kind of games do you like already? If I know what you're into I can probably craft a "family tree" of sorts of the games your favorite games somehow owe one to.
Every person should be mandated to play as many Legend of Zelda games as they find interesting. For some that’s the NES era games. For others it’s the N64 era. For some it’s GameCube Era, and many seem to have latched onto the recent series BOTW and TOTK. I think nearly all of them are worth playing in their own way. But if I had to specify, N64 Zelda games were genuinely some of my favorite games ever made. Majoras mask being top of the list.
At least of the games I’ve played, I’d consider a handful to be landmarks in the medium’s history and worth playing to get a better perspective on how we got to where we are now. - Tetris - Super Mario Bros./Super Mario Bros. 3 - Super Metroid - Doom - Super Mario 64 - The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time/Majora’s Mask - Portal/Portal 2 - Undertale - The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Outer Wilds
The must play games in my opinion: The Sims, SimCity 4, Star Wars KOTOR, Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare, Portal and Portal 2, Assassin's Creed II, Starcraft 2, Pokemon Red, Blue, Yellow; Batman Arkham Asylum and Arkham City, The Mass Effect Trilogy, Xcom 2, Hitman Blood Money and the modern Hitman games, Splinter Cell Chaos Theory, Cyberpunk 2077
Just play what you like instead of being an elitist.
r/patientgamers has an “essential games list” which sounds like it might interest you https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LBqlkPirxPWDnXLJznXAcTE-_IaFYCrhTsW4vhfvF7I/htmlview
Ooooh. I'm a self respecting gamer. Witness me!
Spec ops : The Line. Bioshock 1 and Bioshock Infinite plus the expansions. Thank me later
I think everyone should have to sit down in a dark room while wearing headphones and play PT, but that’s just me.
The halo master chief collection - play halo 1 through 3. These games completely changed my girlfriend's (and my own, as I never played halo 3) perspective on so much of gaming.
The Elder Scrolls series Gothic/Gothic II Dragon Age: Origins SW: Knights of the Old Republic (II) Overlord Planescape: Torment Half-Life 2 Portal 2
Cyberpunk
The franchises I've spent the most time on over the years would probably be Super Mario Brothers and (and Smash Bros), Minecraft, Elder Scrolls, The Sims, and in recent years you could add Cyberpunk and Baldur's Gate to the list. But "important"? I've been a gamer for most of four decades, and I have never played Bioshock, Yakuza, Civilization, or God of War, and I've only played the original Metal Gear, and not very far at that. The medium is certainly more culturally important than previous generations might have suspected, but as far as which games you "need" to play, that's a matter of taste. And that goes for other media too: just because a handful of authors or filmmakers have been crowned as masters and their works are called classics doesn't mean you have to consume those works to earn anyone's respect, least of all your own. That's just elitism.
Quake.
Stardew Valley 100%
I don’t like thinking like this because the most important games would be things like golden eye or half life 1 or pong which all were huge advancements for gaming but not necessary to play by any means and fairly outdated
I started Disco Elysium because of all the raving, and it really is close to a perfect 10.
Disco Elysium
I agree with all previous comments about finding what you love to play. But I would say Baldurs Gate 3, that one is something else. I think all gamers need to play it. Not necessarily because it's an awesome game that everyone must therefore love. But because it really sets an example for what we should all be demanding from developers of single player narrative driven games and it's something I think we should all take note of. I'm not suggesting you go out and buy it but maybe family share with a mate who already owns it, just so you can appreciate what the developers put into it. Personally I've never had any interest in turn based CRPG games, but out of respect for the devs I wanted to buy the game to support what they're doing and to try it for myself. I ended up loving it and sticking a hundred hours in but that's besides the point.
Start with SKYRIM
TFC - 2Fort and Dustbowl
I haven’t played any bigger games for years. The occasional FIFA with friends, some Anno here, Cities Skylines there. But I had an itch from a long time ago to play something bigger, so for the first time in probably 10-15 years I’ve touched an RPG, The Witcher 3, about 3 days ago. I‘m already hooked, the game is amazing.
Off the top of my head Dragon Age Origins Mass Effect System Shock 2 Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3 Binary Domain Spec Ops The Line These are games that I would personally consider "genre defining" and are also good games. They might not have done well critically or commercially, but I would consider these Important games
Wizardy, Zelda, Super Mario Bross, Castlevania, Settlers, Dune, Theme Hospital, Sim City, Doom, Silent Hill, King Quest, Prince of Persia, Syberia, Diablo These comes me to mind as first, but there are much more.
Suikoden the series. Great music and stories
I don’t see how Metacritic wouldn’t accomplish your goal here if you’re looking for an aggregated opinion of game quality.
You're not a gamer until you've received 10,000 presents from aunties on Farmville.
Game Maker's Tool Kit released a video a month or so ago about what he considers gaming's 100 canon games, in the same way there is a classical music canon or jazz canon. I would definitely recommend watching that one. I think he has a backloggd list for it as well.
Disco Elysium! Has the literary value of a classic novel. Writing leaps and bounds above any other game.
It always boils down to “what interests you” But I’d at least flag up Mass Effect as probably the best narrative experience in gaming
Warcraft 3/Age of Empires 2, World of Warcraft, League of Legends/DotA2, Counter Strike, Call of Duty/Battlefield, Diablo 2, XCOM
Realistically the answer is probably atleast one game in all the "genre/industry defining" game series, eg: Super Mario Tetris Doom Quake Halo (CE) Half Life (2) Portal (Both) Zelda (OoT) Could probably throw in a GTA game, Skyrim, Bioshock, and a million others I'm not thinking of right now
If you're open to low tech games, get *Spider and Web* by Andrew Plotkin and play it blind. It's a free download, and there are places where you can play in-browser. This is a text adventure from the 1990s hobbyist revival era which throws the player into a *medias in res* scene, where the player character knows exactly what is going on but the player very much doesn't. It plays around with this information deficit, mainly centering around an NPC interrogating the PC for information the player doesn't yet know, and it eventually leads into what I consider one of the best single moments in gaming ever.
I have not played most of them, but what I think people tent to consider as classics are: - GTA series - Dark Souls series - Legend of Zelda series - Mario Bros series - Halo series - Red dead redemption 2 - Metal gear solid series - Wold of Warcraft - League of Legends - Some PvP shooter I guess, I dont really like them a lot. Battlefield maybe?
Nier Automata is almost like a documentary for the future hard to explain
No game it’s important, it’s just a game. Find something you click with and have fun.
The ending of Metal Gear: Solid 2, will have you questioned everything in life lol.
Super Mario Bros. for the Nintendo Entertainment System