What's the greatest videogame of all time?
What's the greatest videogame of all time?
Rules: just pick 1 and explain why.
I've been playing since the NES and despite being from a low income family I had the luck of being able to play and own many consoles over the 3 decades of my life, plus some pc.
If you ask me right now? Resident Evil 4 (2005).
A before and after in gaming, to this day still extremely fun to play even for casuals but 20 years ago it was THE masterpiece. And everyone took notice of it, everyone played it, even players that didn't cared about resident evil. The gameplay was so good that it got photocopied by everyone right after in the action genre.
Arguably the last big innovator in videogames minus Minecraft and... PUBG (Fortnite did it better I know).
Try to NOT pick your favourite game, that's a different thing.
Well, I think there are multiple potential candidates depending on how you define greatness. I think these few are certainly the most influential:
- Super Mario Bros. Possibly the system it ran on was more important, but this game was a system seller for the system that single-handedly saved not only the entire video game industry, but probably the very concept of video games at a time when it was looking like it'd just be another fad that faded away right along with bellbottoms and pet rocks, with what was left of it remaining caged in Japan. Mario 1 was most people's first platformer, I also have to think that the first damn goomba in 1-1 probably holds the crown for the highest kill count of any entity in the universe.
- Tetris. Infinitely playable and probably infinitely played, and you can get it to run on damn near everything. Everyone knows Tetris, even people who haven't played it or any other video game.
- Doom. Just, Doom. Yes, Quake was more advanced. Yes, Quake was technically the actual technological forefather to the polygonal 3D games we play today, and many game engines still include tiny bits of Quake's original code. But there would be no Quake without Doom. It certainly wasn't the first FPS, but it's the game that cemented the FPS formula for good and firmly established the x86 PC as not only a viable gaming platform, but the king of gaming platforms from that moment until this very day. Ever since Doom, outside of specialized arcade hardware the PC has been the powerhouse platform for the biggest, most technologically demanding games. After Doom game out everyone wanted their own "Doom clone" on their platform just to show that they weren't just another me-too, also-ran.
- Street Fighter 2. The genre defining 1 on 1 fighting game template. Enough said.
- Chrono Trigger. This game showed everyone not what a console RPG was up until that point, but what a console RPG could be if you put actual effort and creativity into it and didn't just crank out another grindy and soulless, swords-and-sorcery-go-kill-the-dragon yawn fest just to keep your franchise going. Its contemporary Final Fantasy games almost got there (especially 6), but Chrono went the full mile. The feats Chrono Trigger pulled off on the humble SNES as well as many of the innovations it brought forward were far ahead of its time and it took literal decades for the genre to catch up to it -- including quite a few entries from its own studio.
- Final Fantasy 7. This game is objectively crap even compared to many of its peers. But there is no doubt that it was the next stepping stone from Chrono Trigger that finally firmly launched the console RPG into mainstream territory, made the genre as a whole truly successful, and was an awful lot of people's first RPG. It probably made a significant and permanent contribution to the formation of weaboo culture, as well.
- Half Life 2. No, not the first Half Life. Not Opposing Force and not Blue Shift, either. There was never before any hype and anticipation for a video game like there was for Half Life 2. In the months leading up to its launch it was all anyone talked about. Not Doom 3, not the new Warcraft. Half Life 2. And of course with Half Life 2 came Steam, and we all know how that turned out. Sure, Steam itself started life as a patch delivery and server browsing platform for Counterstrike, but up until Half Life 2 appeared in it, nobody cared. The impact Half Life 2 had on everything is absolutely undeniable, and that doesn't just include the horde of games that came after it attempting to imitate its unbroken linear first person narrative and setpiece based game design as a cash grab, not to mention that phase in first person shooters where seemingly everything suddenly had to have physics puzzles in it...
It got to be Goat Simulator for sure:
- Top notch graphics.
- Full of features, even some not intended by the developers.
- You can hurt and get hurt, so it's BDSM-friendly.
- Open sandbox.
- It's more recognisable than Tetris. Tetris is easy to confuse with some Tetris knock-off, Goat Simulator is instantly "yup, this is Goat Simulator".
- It's deeper in lore and philosophy than Chrono Trigger.
- Zelda's worldbuilding pales in comparison with Goat Simulator's.
- Requires more strategy than Diablo and FFA combined.
- You play it as a goat dammit. Everything else is just fluff.
Note
This is a joke answer. Don't take it seriously.
Grand Theft Auto 3.
You had to be there to see how absolutely groundbreaking that was at the time. Gaming had suddenly grown up.
It was like all the obvious limits in other games all just got pulled away at once. Explore a full city in 3D, drive around, shoot people, steal a tank.
And the sequel only improved on it, but I've honestly never been so awed by a game before or since. It's like they were the first dev to finally figure out what the PS2 hardware was for. Everything before just felt like a slightly nicer version of what had come before. This was new.
Zelda, the entire series/franchise. The OG RPG. Many argue it isn't an RPG because the original you couldnt level up but when I think of RPG, I think you are a character and you go on an adventure. It also serves as a good gateway to fixed RPGs where everyone basically has the same story. And to strategy video game as a whole. Also, it was Nintendo's first RPG, when PlayStation and Xbox still did not exist. And the Best console is Nintendo since it lasted so long. Many of the other consoles feel like less of a game and more like your are in an interactive movie.
Portal 2 is THE highest rated game on Steam.
Doom or Tetris were probably the most influential ones?
Other people have already said it, but it's Tetris.
Its the only game ever made that I would describe as "perfect".
It takes seconds to learn how to play, while the skill ceiling is in the stratosphere. It's endlessly replayable, the music is iconic, and it's available for basically any platform made in the last 40 years.
I mean, come on, it has to be Minecraft. One of the most influential games of all time. There really is nothing like it
Halflife 2 + Incl Episodes
Final Fantasy Tactics. The original, not the kiddy Tactics Advance games.
Great tactical combat, great soundtrack, amazing story. Plus, abusing the job system to make broken character combos is absurdly fun.
Fallout New Vegas.
If we are just talking about replayability, I have never put as many hours into another game as that one.
It doesn't hold up but while it was happening I don't think there was a better gaming experience than Vanilla WoW. Obviously for some it wasn't the first MMO experience, but for many it was, and it was pure magic.
The random friends made, and mortal enemies you would drop everything you were doing to try and kill. Spending 6 hours clearing a dungeon(read wailing caverns) for the first time with random people you met in chat. Getting your first mount, walking into molten core with 39 other people and killing your first raid boss. Getting your first epic. The stupidity of barrens chat/whatever the equivalent the scumbag alliance had. The first time you had guild mates come to your rescue when some no-life higher level person was camping you and it devolving into an impromptu war between everyone in the zone and their friends. That time you pulled off an epic 1 v 2. Shit talking all the other classes in your guilds class chat during raids.
The drama ohh the drama, the e-gf/bf that became peoples husbands and wives, the guild leaders wife e-humping half the guild. Relationships destroyed because someone would rather spend their time in azeroth that just about anything else.
Drooling over the gear the best players on the server had. Battling on the front lines of alterac valley all night, going to bed and rejoining the same battle, sometimes to cheers from your fellow soldiers that you had rejoined the fight.
I don't think there will ever be anything like it again, we know too much, have access to to much info, but for that brief period in time wow was the greatest game ever.
Doom.
It was the first 3(well, 2.5)D shooter. Plus, I can hear E1M1.
And using the shareware license for distribution widely helped it's popularity and it had multiplayer.
Honorary mention to Carrier Command ( the first one with like a 5 polygon island and a 40 polygon volcano).
The Witcher 3.
Mount and Blade Warband.
So many games you start off or become something great. In Skyrim you're the dragonborn, you become great but you were always going to. The world is huge and immersive, but you're always going to be important in the world.
In warband, you're a nobody. You'll always be a nobody unless you do something. Trade, fight, quest or scheme. The world will continue with or without you. Your favourite faction might get wiped out and you can do something about it or not. There's no guarantee of victory, and what you decide as a win condition is up to you.
It is the ultimate sandbox, but the original is janky. The solution; mods. An incredibly dedicated modding community elevates this game into my most played game. The lord of the rings mod is both the best way to get into the game and in my opinion the best video game adaptation of a movie (just in front of kotor).
TL:DR: Warband makes it ok to suck and makes you earn your victory. You might not think that's fun, but trust me it can be.
Half life. It revolutionized the genre and spawned a ton of games thanks to mods, ie counterstrike
Tetris.
Haven't seen TIE Fighter mentioned yet.
Super metroid
GTA San Andreas.
Someone already said my true #1. But if I ignore that one.
EverQuest. What a crazy game. So many ideas that are just brilliant but people don't do anymore. The enchanter is my favorite power set on any character in any genre and nothing touches it. I wish the design philosophy didn't move away from systems that enable that kind of game play.
the greatest, highest earning, and most influential game of all time is Clash of Clans. It earns about $5mil a day.
Titles like Elden Ring, Zelda, Bioshock, KoTOR, God of War, Skyrim and the Witcher are obscure also-ran games that titans of the game industry (people who fund video game development) consider them failures.
EDIT: I changed some stuff.
I think an interesting way to define the greatest game of all time would be a game that captures your attention the longest and provides the largest variety of ways to play.
To that end, I would say StarCraft 1.
My personal reasoning is I love games that have user generated content to keep you coming back to enjoy fresh experiences. StarCraft 1 had a game mode called use map settings where you could play maps made using the built-in level editor. There was enough complexity in the level editor that basically the sky was the limit.
You want to play a tower defense? StarCraft 1. You want to play an RPG? Which franchise do you want to play, cause a lot of them are on StarCraft 1. You want to play an action adventure game? StarCraft 1. The list goes on lol
I've never personally played it, but I feel like another example of this would be Roblox and another one that I have would be Gary's mod.
DOOM(1993) : You all know why. It was First revolutionary FPS game.
Ocarina of time. All Zelda games since are to some degree compared to it in terms of how successful it is monetarily, gameplay and story-wise. So many modern adventure games are based on this one game. It’s the game that finally made target tracking in 3D work. It’s so well thought out, that a blind streamer is able to play the game probably better than I ever will. If most common people know of “zelda” it’s because of this game. There are so many memes from Zelda in general. It’s one of the few games from my childhood that I will replay for the rest of my life.
Well, I guess my answer could change depending on you how define "best," but I think my answer has to be Dwarf Fortress. I've been playing it longer than some posters on here have been alive! The emergent narratives of your forts and your dorfs combined with the constant drip-feed of updates makes it endlessly replayable. The main game theme has been my last-call morning alarm basically since I had a cell phone that replaced an alarm clock. It's a game I come back to time and again that has yet to get old. If anything, it's getting too complex for my stupid ass lol
It's hard to say since it's like comparing apples to oranges when comparing different genres.
- Action Adventure: Dark Souls 3
- Survival crafting: Subnautica
- Base building: Factorio (Subnautica strong second)
- RTS: StarCraft 2
- City builder: Cities Skylines w mods, otherwise Cities Skylines 2 probably
- Card game: Slay the spire
- Rougelike: Enter the Gungeon (Hades strong second)
- Turn based strategy: Chess probably, never gets old
- RPG: Skyrim probably, haven't played Baldurs Gate and don't remember enough about Dragon Age Origins though.
- JRPG: Chrono Trigger
- AFK/cookie clicker: Magic Archery (1-2 hours to complete and fun throughout), Leaf blower revolution is strong second
Command and conquer generals zero hour
I would usually have said Earthbound or Chrono Trigger, but this year I've been playing Sea of Stars and it truly seems better. I never thought I'd say it. The writing, art, music, gameplay, movement, puzzles, characters, all are aimed in the exact same direction as what CT was trying to do and it goes farther in every way.
Left4Dead2. Infinitely replayable, multiplayer without being toxic (except Versus mode), simple enough for n00bs to not be a burden most of the time.
Quake 3 arena on Dreamcast. 4 player split screen with low gravity and unlimited ammo turned on was something that controlled me and my group of friends lives for years. Not the best game ever to some but definitely to me. Also to get the low gravity and ammo unlocks you had to play a huge maze on the vmu screen. We spent hours mapping out those mazes 1 square inch at a time. They were literally enormous but you could only see 1 inch at a time on that tiny but genius vmu. We even carried our controllers everywhere just in case a game broke out at a party. Each controller was customized with sharpies and shit too. Miss those days so much.
Since everyone's just saying their favorite game, I'll say The Finals!
It's fuckin great! It's the first FPS in years that gets me legit excited to play. I like that the game requires decent strategy, movement, and teamwork to get wins and not just good aim/luck. Everything about it feels fresh. Best of all it's freaking free. A free AAA game in 2024 that's more than decent and has an awesome dev team? Sign me up!
It's wild to me that it's not huge compared to games that go mainstream (not gonna mention names. lol), but I'll appreciate it while it's here.
Runescape. It's been around for more than 20 years and still is one of the most active online games.
Gothic 2.
The next soulslike from FromSoft that doesn’t molest you with the camera. They proved it’s possible with shadow of the Erdtree.
Jokes aside, Slay is absolutely incredible. How a developer managed to make a strategy game as replayable as this before 2000, I don’t know.
Marathon, by Bungie. From the box it came in, to the hugeness of the spaceship, the coolness of the story, all the secrets, and the fan community that sprang up to research and theorize.
And then they made it open source so anybody could play it on any computer.
It's not favorite game to play any more, but it was the greatest game to me.
Guild Wars (the original) Just so nostalgic to me. Gameplay is fun even after all these years.
ET for Atari, classic.
It has its flaws but I've never had more fun than playing halo 3 custom games back in the day. You could do and make almost anything! I haven't felt that playing any game since.
I'm tempted to say either The Witcher 3, Grand Theft Auto V, or Metal Gear Solid 5 (if you can look past the fact it's unfinished).
All three are exceptionally polished, have huge, highly detailed world's to explore, cinematic moments with blockbuster action scenes, smooth and balanced gameplay, are suitable for gaming noobs and veterans, and has moments to goof off and dick around.
It's hard not to be biased, though I'll state I don't personally like GTAV, I think it's perhaps too ordinary for my tastes and feels too restrictive in its mission structure.
Puyo Puyo 20th Anniversary. (Chronicle is a close second)
Puyo Puyo Tsu is the greatest competitive puzzle game ever made. Such a simple set of mechanics gives way to an incredible amount of depth. I think its greatest strength relative to the rest of the genre is how much importance it places on actually paying attention to and adapting to your opponent. Some of my favorite other puzzle games are guilty of feeling more like a game I play adjacent to my opponent rather than against them, and I'll give them a pass if the core gameplay loop is fun enough, but I consider Tsu king of the genre for having the most true versus in its versus mode.
But Tsu's skill curve is terrifyingly impenetrable for beginners, it's one of the hardest competitive puzzle games to learn. Just understanding how to make chains is extremely daunting, and that is but the tip of the iceberg. Paying attention to what your opponent is up to while still being able to concentrate on what you're doing is an order of magnitude harder, and that's kind of where the real game begins.
20th shines by being the most comprehensive package full of additional content for players of all skill levels alongside the classic Tsu ruleset. There's a whopping 20 different game modes to play around in, many of which are much more immediately fun for a beginner to pick up, get hooked on, and hopefully enjoy the game enough to want to eventually learn to scale the mountain that is Tsu later.
Sadly, this game never got released in the west, and none of the games that have come anywhere close to it. And I think that's a large part of why the series is struggling to gain any kind of recognition in the west, we've never seen the best of what it has to offer.
Maniac Mansion or Zack McKraken on the Commadore64. At the time...at that age... we were living in the future, and it was amazing.
Dark Souls remastered taught me how to look at life differently. I now accept failure as part of the process of growing, not something that should be avoided at all costs.
Also it taught me how to parry like a G.
As someone who never played the games as a kid, I can be more or less impartial in saying that Mario Bros. was probably the gaming industry's big break.
Halo 2
Asteroids
Final Fantasy 1 - It wasn’t the first RPG, but it pretty much defined the series. It still has tons of playability, I revisit it more or less every 5 years. I still have yet to beat Warmech, and only have encountered him a handful of times.
But most of all, it’s the game that saved Squaresoft. If it had failed, we would have missed out on so many great games, including ones also mentioned in this post.
Runners up have to be Donkey Kong, which brought us Mario, which in turn restored vitality into the at home console game industry, and Double Dragon, which brought us PVP and Co-op combat.
Honorable mention would have to be that Simpsons arcade game where Marge can fight with the vacuum cleaner and TMNT 2 - Two classic, very difficult, drain your change jar games. I’d throw Mega man 2 into that mix as well.
There are to many genres in gaming so if we reduce the scope to only card games (which is obviously the only relevant genre), It's slay the spire obviously.
I guess Guild Wars 2 because is tha game I’ve spent more hours playing, a few thousand.
XCOM
Maybe Halo 3? The amount of content, the custom games, the competitive gaming, all of it was just so good and loved by so many people.
Flashback A plateform game with a nice story telling. Graphics and music was unbelievable
Never understood people's obsession with RE4. It completely changed the series from survival horror to action shooter, as if we didn't have enough of those already. One zombie used to be terrifying. Now there's hundreds coming at you at once and they go down easily. They removed most of the puzzles too and dumbed down the ones they left. Somebody please tell me why everyone loves this game!?
Give me the first two Resident Evils over the 4th one any day. Hell, I rather play RE3 than RE4.
Grandia II
Original x-com was great you had lots of research to do, bases to set up with defenses, manufacturing, storage, radars etc. Could make money from both loot and manufacturing your own products.
Then there was intercepting UFOs with your fighters followed by the actual missions were you could use all your researched gear, get loot, capture Aliens to interrogate for more research and level up your soldiers.
I still play the openxcom version now and again with various mods but yeah as a kid I used to play the original on the original PlayStation with its mouse and it's without a doubt the game I've probably spent more time on than any other.
Wasn't a huge fan of the remade ones to me the original is the best one.
RuneScape
I don't personally play it anymore but it having still players to this day and thriving proves it.
Edit: On second thought it's probably Java Edition Minecraft. Thing spawn an industry around it. Now people's livelyhood depend on it. A generation learning java programming just to make plugins or mods. I bet this also what increase the number of java developers. Probably inadvertently also introduced to Blender. Being accessable and sandbox made that possible.
