60. 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.
59. 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.
58. 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.
57. Simcity 3000 Unlimited (Maxis, 2000)
Simcity was of course enormously popular 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.
56. 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.
55. 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.
54. 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.
53. Simcity 4: Deluxe Edition (Maxis, 2003)
Simcity 3000, while solid enough, wasn't as big a leap over 2000 as many fans hoped; it had some new features, yes, but they mostly felt superficial and didn't really add a whole lot to the core gameplay over 2000. So when it came to making Simcity 4, they knew they had to go bigger to make it stand out. Much bigger. And they did - this time around you build up not just one city, but an entire geographical region, sculpting landscapes, building towns and cities on them and connecting them together so that they can all trade resources and collectively thrive. The Rush Hour expansion only makes things better, giving you a ton of new transport options to build (monorails, elevated rails, toll roads and water ferries among them) and even letting you take control of vehicles yourself to complete randomly-generated missions for a boost in approval, money, rewards or to just explore your city. The game also accepts mods, and there's quite a few high-quality ones to choose from - improving existing buildings, adding entirely new ones, fixing a lot of baked-in bugs and even making fundamental changes to core gameplay elements are all represented. You can even import your created characters from The Sims and have them live in your new cities too if that's your thing. Really, the only downsides to SC4 are its high system requirements (even with a beefy machine, performance isn't always great either) and the fact that this is the last great Simcity.
52. Icewind Dale II (Black Isle Studios, 2002)
The last game built in the Infinity Engine, Icewind Dale II also substantially overhauled it from a design perspective, retrofitting the entire engine to use Third Edition rules. That means no more tedious dice rolling to min-max your characters at the select screen, it's much less picky about weapon proficiencies and spells and gameplay in general are substantially more balanced. The story once again takes a backseat to large-scale battles and tactical combat, but there's still quite a bit of high-quality writing to be found in between all the battles and more than a few roleplaying opportunities to boot. Unfortunately it's also very unlikely to get an official Enhanced Edition as the source code for the game has been lost; although there is a substantial
fan-mod by that name that introduces several gameplay improvements and performance tweaks.
51. Sid Meier's Civilization V (Firaxis Games, 2010)
Sid Meier's Civilization is a long time favorite among strategy fans, and it's easy to see why - it's a clever concept that's executed well. Put in command of a civilization, you lead them over thousands of years, guiding them toward one of the game's victory conditions. Civ 5 marked a substantial overhaul of the core mechanics, giving you things like Culture that can be spent on permanent upgrades and a focus on religion that can be used to build influence with other cultures (and resist theirs in turn), as well as independent city-states to befriend or subjugate. There are four ways to win - by conquering every other civ's original capital, by winning the space race, by having an enormous influence over every other civilization through tourism and/or religion, or by being voted world leader in the UN after securing enough delegate votes. A deep and ruthlessly addictive game, and it even supports Steam Workshop so you can add even more to it or tweak the rules however you like.
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.
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.
