40. System Shock (Looking Glass Studios, 1994)
System Shock was another early Looking Glass title that was highly acclaimed for being innovative and surprisingly deep (big shock there). It utilized the same engine as Ultima Underworld; however, it took things into the future instead, putting the player on a space station overrun by mutants and cyborgs and having them fight to survive and thwart the machinations of the mad AI SHODAN. In contrast to many other shooters of the time period, though, System Shock is comparatively slow paced and methodical - not quite stealth-based, but you'll do a lot of crouching and peering around corners to take potshots at enemies rather than facing them head-on, and you'll also collect a number of upgrades for your cyborg gear - from a camera that sees behind you to speed-boosting leg enhancements to a shield that absorbs some damage you take. There is also a heavy focus on storytelling, puzzles and mission objectives - hunting down crew logs, keycards and passwords, finding ways to skirt around traps, and solving wiring puzzles are commonplace. You'll also have to hop into cyberspace which, as in many 90s depictions, is a surreal world full of 3D shapes and vague space shooter elements. Very much a product of its time with its slow-paced gameplay and somewhat clumsy controls and physics, but a very rewarding experience once you adapt to its quirks.
39. Starcraft II (Blizzard, 2010)
The original Starcraft was a game-changer with its three very distinct but balanced factions and fast paced, yet surprisingly deep design. Starcraft II keeps that philosophy intact but also massively improves the original 's clunky pathfinding, AI and interface, adds in many new units, co-op missions and a well-crafted three-part episodic campaign with team customization, branching story paths and many new unit types to experiment with. Despite lacking a few prominent features of the original (like, y'know, LAN support?), Starcraft II is a brilliant experience both online and solo, and for my money the undisputed king of the RTS genre
38. Max Payne (Remedy Entertainment, 2001)
37. The Oregon Trail (MECC, 1985)
If you're of a certain age you probably remember playing this one in your school days, mostly because it's one of those rare educational games that was actually fun. In fact, it was actually rather like a roguelike in many respects - you picked one of three career paths (determining your starting money and score multiplier at the end), dealt with a lot of randomized hazards and splitting paths, and tried to reach Oregon with as many resources intact and people still alive as you could. There were legions of updates, remakes and rereleases over the years (still continuing to this day) and several spinoffs including Amazon Trail, Africa Trail, Yukon Trail and the controversial
Freedom!, but the fact that this game still remains popular despite having iterations going all the way back to
1971 speaks to its timeless charm.
36. Dwarf Fortress (Bay 12 Games, 2006+)
Slaves to Armok: God of Blood Chapter II: Dwarf Fortress (yes, that's its full title) has always been a legendary title among PC gamers despite being in a constantly unfinished state for over fifteen years, and even after getting a paid Steam release in December of 2022, it's still very far from done. But it is at least considerably more accessible now, with a window and icon based user interface, tile graphics instead of just ASCII characters, Steam Workshop modding support and some quite excellent, moody music and ambient sound on top of everything. Gameplay-wise it's a bit hard to describe, but I think an apt description is "Simcity plus the Sims, only much more complex". Basically, you generate a world and its complete history, then start out with a small caravan of dwarves and try to set up a colony, building and maintaining every imaginable thing you'll need to that end - workshops, meeting places, stills to brew liquor, bedrooms, blacksmiths, fields to farm, traps to deter invaders, a trading post and so forth, and you give your dwarves jobs to carry out each of these tasks as needed. You're also constantly beset by all manner of hazards from both within and without, from goblin raids to illness to subterranean horrors to fits of murderous madness, and you just try to survive as long as you can before things get into a downward spiral and your fort collapses in spectacular fashion. There's no concrete win condition and all manner of things can and will go cataclysmically wrong, but as the game's motto goes - Losing is Fun!
35. NetHack (The NetHack DevTeam, 1987+)
Arguably the most enduring RPG of all time, NetHack debuted in 1987 and is still under active development today, continuing to get bugfixes and new features with each patch that comes out. Based on the gameplay of genre-definer Rogue (and a fork of a clone named simply "Hack"), NetHack adds much more to the roguelike format with a much larger variety of playable classes, item types, equipment, monsters and hazards to avoid, as well as mechanics like a pet ally who can become quite powerful if kept alive, a hunger meter to maintain, shops, cursed and blessed items, divine intervention (to be used sparingly lest you offend your god) and the ability to polymorph into other forms to gain advantages. One must also deal with all manner of crippling negative statuses, including blindness, wounded limbs, lycanthropy, strangulation and being turned to stone, which can quickly throw a wrench into your game plan or even bring your run to an abrupt end. NetHack is also legendary for its difficulty - even those who have learned its many intricacies and played hundreds or even thousands of games can count their victories in single digits. Even with all of that in play, though, the game's dense and addictive design, solid sense of humor, and endless replayability keep its appeal strong, and will continue to do so for decades to come. It may not have top-notch voice acting, movie-like cutscenes, achievements, epic music, amazing sound design or even graphics, but it's got tons of depth and timeless design, and that's enough to make it an immortal classic.
34. AM2R (Some awesome fans, 2016)
Nintendo's Metroid series is one that has been oft-copied, but puzzlingly sat idle in Nintendo's own hands for nearly a decade. AM2R is a stellar fan-created remake of Metroid II for the PC, combining excellent visuals and audio design, spot-on controls and polished gameplay on par with the top games in the franchise. Naturally, Nintendo quickly became green with envy for said fans doing something better with Metroid than they had in years and had it pulled from the internet, once again reaffirming their philosophy that "If people can't play high-quality fan games or even our old games that were good, they'll just have to buy our new games that aren't so good instead". Which just seems like terrible business practice to me, but oh well. If you can get your hands on this piece of forbidden treasure, you should, because AM2R is a game with more polish than most professionally released games, and perfectly captures that feeling of isolation in an eerie alien world that the classic Metroid games provided.
33. Day of the Tentacle (Lucasarts, 1993)
The sequel to Maniac Mansion and Tim Schafer's first game as project lead, Day of the Tentacle was another hilarious and well-made point and click adventure from LucasArts. Starring Bernard and two of his college roommates as they attempt to foil the Purple Tentacle's scheme for world conquest, the setup is quite a clever one - each of the three characters is trapped in a different time period, able to pass objects between one another but otherwise unable to directly interact, and changing things in the past will affect things in the future, opening paths for puzzles to be solved. This, plus the sharp writing, acting and animation, make for a truly fun and creative adventure. Though it sadly lacks the multiple paths and endings of the original game, Day of the Tentacle is nonetheless a worthy sequel to a classic.
32. Slay the Spire (Megacrit, 2019)
A relatively novel blend of elements, Slay the Spire is one part deck-building card game and one part roguelike, melded together quite expertly. Building your deck, thinning out your less-useful cards and acquiring various Relics to bolster your abilities (doing everything from restoring HP after battle to damaging enemies every few cards you play) become just as much of a focus as clearing out foes. As you proceed up floors, defeating progressively tougher enemies, you also get a slew of randomized events - campfires to rest and regain HP or upgrade a single card in your deck, shops, and all manner of random events that can help or hinder you. Tough and unpredictable as any good roguelike, but with enough of a strategic bent that encourages experimentation and gives it a ton of replayability.
31. Against the Storm (Eremite Games, 2022)
Described as a city-builder crossed with a roguelike, and it's definitely a strange combination, though once you start playing the game you find it works shockingly well. You're given a selection of several randomly-generated goals to meet, and from there it's down to managing your workforce, keeping their morale up, keeping the forest itself from becoming too hostile toward you, and harvesting and utilizing resources while facing adverse weather and hazards in the stretch of forest you're mining your way through. It does kind of suck when you spend over an hour on a stage only to fall short at the last minute, but you do at least gain experience for the effort so the next attempt can (hopefully) go better!
