Top 111 PC Games #80-71

80. Sid Meier's Civilization IV (Firaxis Games, 2005)

The Sid Meier's Civilization franchise has always been a popular one, and many fans consider IV to be the pinnacle of the series.  It isn't hard to see why, either, as it takes everything great about its predecessors and polishes it to perfection, adding in a few new mechanics without disrupting the balance (particularly the Beyond the Sword expansion, which adds in many new units, buildings, randomized events and roads to victory).  It's also highly customizable, with the player able to tweak just about every element of the game to their liking with easily-editable XML files and a publicly available SDK.  But beneath it all, it's still good ol' Civ - build cities and armies, research new technologies, build world wonders, and reach one of the win conditions before your opponents do.  Plus, it has Leonard Nimoy doing the narration; you can't argue with that kind of awesome.

79. The Incredible Machine (Jeff Tunnell Productions, 1993)

A puzzle game built on a great concept, having you solve various objectives using a collection of parts, each with unique properties and applications, to construct elaborate Rube Goldberg devices.  So something as simple as "guide the mouse to the mousehole" can involve pulleys, rope, balloons, scissors, pipes and a springboard, and that's just one of hundreds of scenarios spread across the series.  The first game later had an expanded release (The Even More Incredible Machine), two sequels that got expanded versions themselves, and a spiritual successor (Contraption Maker) that added even more goals to complete and parts to experiment with, so fans of logic puzzles had quite a lot to enjoy from this series.

78. The Incredible Toon Machine (Jeff Tunnell Productions, 1994/1996)

The Incredible Toon Machine is an offshoot of the Incredible Machine series which adds cartoon logic into the mix, pitting the titular characters against one another on the backdrop of a series of puzzles.  To this end, you'll fire catapults, utilize lights and magnifying glasses to burn things, use elaborate systems of ropes, pulleys and conveyor belts to transport objects, and, of course, cause mayhem with anvils, dynamite, revolvers and bombs.  The between-level cutscenes in the CD release were also a lot of fun, having Sidney Mouse and Al E. Cat (voiced by Rob Paulsen and Jim Cummings respectively) explain your objectives with bits of animation and plenty of jokes.  Oddly the game also had a Japan-exclusive reskin for the Playstation and Sega Saturn, changing the objects and characters to ones from the Ghosts n' Goblins franchise.

77. The Secret of Monkey Island (LucasArts, 1990)

The first entry in what would become a long-running (if not exactly strong-selling) series, Secret of Monkey Island is a humorous point-and-click adventure starring the bumbling Guybrush Threepwood, who is tasked with completing three trials to become a pirate.  These take the form of some brilliantly funny puzzles - the insult-swordfighting is a particular favorite - and eventually culminate in a showdown with the vicious ghost pirate LeChuck, who would become Guybrush's recurring nemesis throughout the series.  The second half of the game does feel a bit rushed, but overall this is still a worthy adventure game and a solid start to a consistently fun and irreverent franchise.

76. Grim Fandango (LucasArts/Double Fine, 1998/2015)

Another highly-acclaimed adventure from Tim Schafer and Lucasarts; unfortunately critical acclaim doesn't necessarily translate to strong sales, so they began to wind down their adventure game development shortly after this one's release (only releasing one more Monkey Island game after).  Still, it attracted enough of a fan following to get a remaster and remains acclaimed for its clever premise, inventive art style and strong sense of humor.  Starring Manny Vargas, a "travel agent" for the Land of the Dead, he seeks to unravel a conspiracy and restore the natural order of the afterlife.  It does use tank controls and fixed camera angles so moving and navigation takes some getting used to, but once you get it down you're in for a high-quality adventure.

75. 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 deaths and the underlying conspiracies behind them.  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.

74. Blood (Monolith, 1997)

The Build engine may have looked just a bit dated by 1997, especially since Quake was the hot new game on the market, but Blood proved that superior design could more than make up for older tech.  Blood is a master class of horror elements, with a grim, creepy atmosphere and enemies like giant spiders, gargoyles, cultists and flame-spewing cerberus dogs, all with the same immersive and surprisingly realistic level design that made Duke Nukem 3D work so well.  The weapons are equally inventive, with mundane options like a shotgun and tommy gun taking a back seat to weapons like a flare gun or a spray can/lighter to ignite enemies, a voodoo doll that inflicts extra damage to undead/magical enemies (but will damage you if you stab it when no enemies are onscreen) and a crazy-looking skull staff called the Life Leech that doubles as a stationary sentry gun.  The game was exceptionally tough (not aided by a bug that would cause the difficulty level to cycle every time one loaded a save), but the sheer inspiration behind its design is something that must be seen.  It's just a shame the sequel (Blood II: The Chosen) was such a mess.  As for the sequel's expansion... well, "avoid at all costs" is about the kindest thing that can be said for that.

73. Fallout: A Post Nuclear Role Playing Game (Interplay, 1997)

Drawing heavy inspiration from their earlier hit "Wasteland" (with the license having fallen to EA years prior), Fallout's creators set out to create a bleak post-apocalyptic landscape for the player to explore, and did so admirably, combining a grim atmosphere with a sly sense of humor throughout.  What really sold the game, though, was the sheer amount of thought put into its story and design - rather than encourage the player to just mindlessly blast everything as so many RPGs of the time were wont to do, the player is given many choices to deal with every questline put before them - a combative approach, stealthy approach and even pure diplomacy will work in almost any situation.  Hell, it's even possible to complete the game without firing a single shot or witnessing a single death.  The first in a great series of games.

72. Beyond Shadowgate (Zojoi, 2024)

It took a decade to get done, but 2014's Shadowgate reboot finally got its sequel - Beyond Shadowgate.  Bearing virtually no resemblance to the action-adventure Turbografx-CD title of the same name, this is based on the originally pitched design document is very much a callback to the point-and-click style titles of the '80s, even recreating the familiar interface, dry sense of humor and pixel art with very limited animation of the classic titles.  There are also numerous callbacks to those titles, from lines of dialog to straight-up cameo locales returning, which I quite liked as a long-time fan. Thankfully they also avoid a lot of the annoying trappings of frustrating old '80s adventures, with logical puzzles and no ways to make the quest unwinnable (none that I could find at any rate).  If you're a fan of the classic ICOM titles, this is one you don't want to miss.

71. Severed Steel (Greylock Studio, 2021)

A fast paced, frenetic shooter that feels like a mashup of Max Payne, Vanquish and Superhot.  Hop, slide and wall-run while mowing down waves of soldiers with head-shots and explosions.  You also get an arm cannon that lets you blast through walls to get the jump on foes or make shortcuts, so it's just pure unadulterated shooting action and fun.  Admittedly it is rather short - the campaign only runs about 4 hours - but there's daily challenges and bonus stages aplenty too, so it's great fun for just picking up for a few minutes and going on a wild power trip whenever the mood strikes.

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