Top 111 PC Games, #60-51

60. Half-Life (Valve, 1998)

First person shooters were the new hotness in the '90s, and it seemed like every new one was upping the ante, trying to maintain a fun, fast-paced style but working in more story elements and realistic environments to play in.  Half-Life was certainly no exception, and for 1998 it was nothing short of mindblowing.  Set in a research laboratory overrun by hostile aliens (and later soldiers trying to cover up the incident that unleashed them), the environments you trekked through had a ton of personality and danger in themselves.  From tram tracks to vats of toxic waste to all sorts of hazardous industrial equipment, there was just as much of a puzzle element in safely navigating them as there was in defeating the enemies.

59. Ys III: The Oath in Felghana (Nihon Falcom, 2005)

A remake of 1991's Wanderers from Ys, though it did away with the controversial rework into a sidescrolling platformer design and went back to the more fast-paced action Ys became known for.  They take the same engine from Ark of Napishtim and rework it substantially to further emphasize the combat, with some downright crazy, fast-paced platforming and combat that requires well-timed dodges, strikes and effective use of all your moves to survive, and actually encouraging you to blast through enemies as quickly as possible with cumulative attack, defense and experience bonuses.  And of course, the game's music is simply phenomenal, with a hard rock/metal bent to typical fantasy soundtracks.

58. Commander Keen in Goodbye Galaxy! (id Software, 1991)

The fifth and sixth parts of the Commander Keen series (though labeled as 4 and 5... it's complicated) were a big leap forward for not just platformers on the PC, but for the series itself.  Smooth-scrolling, fluid platforming action was almost unheard of in DOS games at the time (compare this to say, Duke Nukem 1 or the Mega Man DOS games - BIG difference!), and the level of graphical detail was sublime and imaginative, looking like a cartoon on your computer.  Many of Keen's trademark elements return - the stun gun, the pogo stick and tons of collectibles - but the smoother controls and new capabilities like climbing up poles, unlocking rooms with keycards and mantling up ledges made its gameplay both more fun and more complex than previous entries.  He may not be as well-known as Sonic or Mario, but Keen was the closest thing the PC platform had for a good, long while.

57. Sid Meier's Civilization II (Microprose, 1996)

A legendary series built on a great concept - over the course of ~6000 years, you build up a civilization from its earliest days into an empire that conquers the whole world (or wins the space race).  I'm certainly not the only one to think so, as it's managed to keep people ruthlessly addicted with its deep design for over three decades and shows no sign of stopping.  There's certainly no shortage of debate about which is the best, but the one I keep coming back to is the second game, taking the base gameplay introduced in the original and tuning it up considerably, resulting in a near perfectly-balanced experience that's brilliantly fun both solo and in multiplayer.  The game also supports mods (and the Multiplayer Gold Edition even includes several pre-packaged in), so it's a game you can tweak to suit your every preference.   A perfect and engrossing way to kill a few hours whenever the mood strikes, and it was also a major inspiration for FreeCiv, an open-source project that draws heavy inspiration from its design and has variants that incorporate dozens of players and literal months-long sessions.

56. Simcity 3000 Unlimited (Maxis, 2000)

Simcity was of course a big hit and Simcity 2000 even moreso, so 3000 had quite big shoes to fill to live up to its legacy; moreso because it was the first game in the series that Will Wright wasn't involved in creating.  They did an admirable job, though - initially planned to be in full 3D, those plans were eventually scrapped owing to hardware limitations of the time and the game went back to a 2D style, giving it a substantial visual overhaul and larger maps to compensate.  One prominent new element is that you now have to implement trash collection services, and you have the option to make business deals with neighboring cities - either to offload some of your own problems at a cost or take on some of theirs for extra revenue.  You'll also get proposals for things like golf courses, maximum security prisons or casinos, which bring in a substantial amount of cash but often come with a sizable hit to land value, crime or pollution.  The Unlimited expansion (released under many different names depending on the region) also adds in numerous real-life landmarks to decorate your cities with and even an easy-to-use editor to create your own, letting you put some amazing new touches on your creations.  The third Simcity may not have been a huge leap over 2000 in terms of design, but when it's so well made and fun, I certainly won't complain.

55. Shadowrun: Dragonfall/Hong Kong (Harebrained Schemes, 2014/2015)

The second and third games in the rebooted Shadowrun franchise, and easily my favorite ones so far, expanding on everything the original brought to the table while losing nothing that made it great.  The story is nothing short of brilliant, bringing together a cast of diverse and complex characters to solve the mystery of their friend's death and the underlying conspiracy behind it.  Throughout the game, every choice you make seems to be the wrong one, making you new enemies and seemingly digging you deeper into a pit you can't escape from, while the combat only gets more intense with enemies bringing out bigger guns, setting up nastier traps and summoning bigger monsters to get in your way.  Stellar stuff all around, and a perfect example of how to do a grim, atmospheric game experience right.

54. Ultima VII Part 2: the Serpent Isle (Origin Systems, 1993)

The direct followup to Ultima VII (and the spinoff game Ultima Underworld II), Serpent Isle was also a callback to the franchise's earliest days, returning to worlds not seen since Ultima 1 and showing a world very different and considerably more troubled than the Britannia we've come to know.  The stakes were higher too; not just with the looming threat of the Guardian and his underlings, but a cosmic imbalance is causing reality itself to slowly unravel, adding considerably to your woes.  Unfortunately the game was also the first to really suffer from the EA buyout, as the world feels much more barren and the latter half in particular very rushed and definitely not up to the series' high standards in design.  Nevertheless, the story is captivating and the solid engine of 7 is tuned up in quite a few ways, making it another very worthwhile Ultima adventure.

53. Symphony of War: The Nephilim Saga (Dancing Dragon Games, 2022)

Another example of a game clearly inspired by classics of the genre (Fire Emblem and Ogre Battle in particular), but which ends up being so well-made that it stands out and becomes a fantastic title in itself.  Case in point, you move across the map with your squads (consisting of up to nine units of varying classes), capturing towns, utilizing strongholds and terrain to give themselves an advantage in skirmishes, and exploring characters through mid-battle dialog scenes. Battles get surprisingly large in scale (sometimes overwhelmingly so), though you get powers to do things like grant units extra turns or deal damage over a large area to help speed things up or get yourself out of a jam.  A wonderful and engrossing strategy RPG.

52. Master of Magic (Simtex, 1994)

A definite cult classic, combining the city building and expansion of Civilization with the spells and tactical combat of Heroes of Might and Magic (or more accurately inspiring it, since it predates the first HOMM game by about a year).  It's a simple enough concept - build up your armies, gather resources from the map and various dungeons and structures and the parallel world of Myrror, and eventually try to conquer every other faction in the world.  One can also amass enough resources to cast the all-powerful Spell of Mastery to instantly win the game, but that's considerably more difficult as all surviving factions will immediately team up to take you down once you start casting it.  The game has such a substantial following that it got a successor series (Age of Wonders), an expansion over twenty years after its initial release (Caster of Magic), as well as a full remake in 2022.

51. Wildermyth (Worldwalker Games, 2021)

Plenty of games have tried for a heavily randomized RPG experience; usually plot-light roguelikes or just having randomly generated dungeons, equipment parameters, and so forth with the same basic story as a backdrop.  Wildermyth goes a step further, attempting to emulate tabletop gaming by generating a new narrative each time you play.  Player input does influence the proceedings, though - you can take risks to get rewards or be punished with penalties for failure, form rivalries or romances between characters, and even mid-battle this doesn't stop - if a character's HP drops to zero, they can sacrifice themselves to the enemy for one last strike, to boost all allies' stats or even survive to fight another day, albeit with a permanent injury like losing a limb.  The underlying gameplay itself is also quite solid (and a bit reminiscent of XCOM), having the player explore territory, gather resources and forage (or forge) new equipment to counter a constantly-escalating enemy force.

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