Top 111 PC Games, #60-51

60. Doom II (iD Software, 1994)

 

Doom II was released less than a year after the original Doom, and as you'd expect from such a short time gap, the engine and core gameplay concept remains largely unchanged - get to the end of each level and blast everything in your way.  There is one new weapon (the Super Shotgun) and numerous new enemies like Revenants, Mancubi, Chaingun Zombies and Archviles, as well as 32 new stages to experience.  Several high-quality official add-ons were also released, including Master Levels and a standalone two-episode sequel called Final Doom.  I'm not really a fan of the aesthetic (way too much brown and gray) and some of the new monsters feel a little superfluous, but Doom II is still a standout game.  It deserves mention separate from its predecessor too as it's also the basis for much of the fan content that followed. Level packs, total conversions, random level generators, source ports that enable amazing new fangames and scripted events and cutscenes are almost exclusively based on the sequel rather than the first game.  Doom 1 may have set a new standard for first person shooters and Quake may have a bigger following these days, but Doom II is another essential PC game that shouldn't be missed.

 

59. Cave Story (Dōkutsu Monogatari) (Pixel, 2004)

With the internet's explosion in popularity came an interest in indie games old and new, with sites like Newgrounds giving a lot of developers and fans a place to show off their talents and numerous abandonware sites archiving obscure and forgotten classics.  Cave Story is one that came to peoples' attention not long after its initial release in 2004, garnering a lot of attention for its high quality Metroid-like design, presentation reminiscent of 8 and 16-bit retro titles, having a surprisingly engrossing story and being created over the course of five years by a single developer.  Since then it's gotten tons of attention in the form of fan translations, ports to numerous platforms (official and otherwise), a slew of remakes, mods and source ports, and even a fan-created level editor.  

58. Freedom Planet (GalaxyTrail, 2014)

Beginning life as a Sonic the Hedgehog fangame, Freedom Planet quickly turned into something grander - an homage to Sega Genesis era action games in general, working in elements of games like Rocket Knight Adventures and a dash of Treasure style action as well.  There are three playable characters - Sash Lilac (who has a speed dash and a spinning cyclone), Carol Tea (who fights with short-ranged claw swipes and can ride a motorcycle that both makes her faster and gives her stronger attacks) and Milla Basset (who can hover for short distances as well as summon magical barriers and cubes, which serve as both projectiles and a short-ranged but powerful burst attack).  The fast-paced action and fluid animation also fit the aesthetic perfectly, creating a game that's flashy and intense and whose puzzles don't intrude on the fast pace.

57. SimTower/Yoot Tower (OpenBook/OPeNBooK9003, 1994/1998)

Despite the name, SimTower technically isn't part of the Maxis software toy line.  Rather, it was developed by Yutaka "Yoot" Saito, released in Japan as "The Tower" and published by Maxis in the rest of the world using their Sim brand.  It was an easy mistake to make though, considering you can pretty accurately describe it as "SimCity crammed into a single building".  You build an ever-expanding tower, provide it amenities like condos, apartment buildings, fast food chains, offices, retail outlets, movie theaters and so forth, keep them all connected via stairs and elevators, and try to keep your revenue in the black, which largely entails keeping tenant stress at manageable levels.  Tenants complain about noise, lengthy trips to their dwellings and unclean rooms (and may move out if they're not fixed) and various disasters can strike at random, like fires or terrorists planting bombs and demanding a hefty ransom.  The sequel, localized by Sega as "Yoot Tower", is more of the same, though with new amenities to build and several scenarios with distinct goals, like a tourist resort at Kegon Falls and a Hawaiian hotel.  A number of expansions were released in Japan centered on new locations like the Statue of Liberty and Kyoto Station which likewise have their own amenities and sets of goals to meet, but sadly none of these ever got brought over.  An unfortunately never-patched bug in the Windows version also causes the program to crash whenever you load a save for the Kegon Falls scenario, and it also doesn't look quite as nice as its Mac counterpart, so play the Mac version of Yoot Tower if at all possible.

56. Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos/The Frozen Throne (Blizzard, 2002/2003)

Warcraft was one of Blizzard's earliest hits; an early real-time strategy game with two long and varied campaigns and plenty of charm and atmosphere.  The sequel offered a vastly improved UI, faster pace and larger-scale battles, and Warcraft III certainly upped the ante too.  The total number of playable factions was raised to four (adding the corpse-manipulating Undead and nature-oriented Night Elves) and some RPG elements were worked into the proceedings - each army gets their own unique "hero units" that power up after defeating foes, carry an inventory of items (like stat boosting equipment or potions to recover HP) and have powerful spells that can quickly turn the tide of battles.  The Frozen Throne is a great expansion too, adding new units for each army, two neutral factions (the Naga and the Dranei), reintroducing naval battles, and of course continuing the storyline from the original game.  It's just a shame that Activision has seen fit to taint its legacy with the absolutely wretched "remaster" called Warcraft III: Reforged, which not only has mountains of bugs and glitches, but you can't even play the original version online anymore AND they get dibs on any custom games you make with their engine.  Nice one, morons!

55. Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge (LucasArts, 1991)

Monkey Island was never Lucasarts' best selling franchise, but its irreverent humor, strong atmosphere and well-crafted puzzles gave it enough of a following to get several sequels over the years.  Monkey Island 2 follows Guybrush Threepwood on his quest to find the lost treasure of Big Whoop, running afoul of his once-vanquished nemesis LeChuck on the way.  With more clever design, hilarious dialog and plenty of jokes tied to creative puzzles and a strong narrative, it's another solid title.  It would also be the last game in the series that Ron Gilbert would work on for nearly thirty years, eventually returning to the series with 2022's Return to Monkey Island.

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. Ion Fury (Voidpoint, 2019)

The prequel to the 2016 flop "Bombshell" but thankfully it succeeds in every way its predecessor failed, bringing back the Build Engine with all the panache and clever design that made games like Duke Nukem and Blood great in the first place.  Fast-paced action in surprisingly realistic environments (well, as much as a twenty-four year old engine can muster, at least) with a huge number of interactive objects, secrets to find, clever enemy designs, tons of references to old 3D Realms games and a cool wisecracking protagonist, as well as some new features for the engine like climbable ladders and alt-fire for almost every weapon.  It may not be the modern era's prettiest shooter, but I was having too much fun with it to care.  Ion Fury is the long-lost cousin of all the classic '90s shooters.

51. Age of Empires II: the Age of Kings Definitive Edition (Ensemble Studios, 1999/2019)

One of the biggest names in real time strategy, and it's easy to see why when you pick it up and play.  A clever blend of elements from Warcraft and Sid Meier's Civilization, you gather resources to build up towns and cities, train your units, and advance through five Ages that allow not just for new buildings and units, but substantial upgrades to your existing ones.  Like Civ, there are also multiple paths to victory - military conquest, building a Wonder and having it stand for a set period of time, or collecting all religious artifacts that appear on the map and stationing them in a monastery, and of course each faction also gets their own unique exclusive units and technologies.  There are many other game modes too, like "Regicide" (with players eliminated when they lose all their Kings or town centers), King of the Hill and Defend the Wonder (where one team begins with a wonder and the other teams ally to defeat them).  Also like Civ, each unique civilization has unique exclusive units and architecture, giving the game a lot of unique flavor, variety and strategy.

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