I love playing games, especially games with great narrative. So I was looking through Den of Geek’s Best 100 games of the decade and I was thinking I played quite a lot of them. Especially since I don’t play games as much as I want to.
Also, don’t forget, I started and sold a gaming company in the past decade. So I was doing “research” :D
Go to the Den of Geek list to see some more details about the games, but here are the games I played (or at least touched in some way) with a little bit of commentary:
96. X-COM: Enemy Unknown. I’ve loved the original series, which I played as a kid. I played some of the new one as well, but not enough.
90. Mortal Kombat X. The 1 vs. 1 game of choice in my family, along with Rocket League. My fiancée beats the hell out of me most of the time.
79. God of War 3. I loved this series on PS3. Finished this game twice (once on PS4, as well)
77. Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor. Played about half of the game. My cousin loved it. Me, not so much. Good game, but it didn’t get me at the right time, I think.
73. Nier: Automata. Loved this game. I hate that it’s so difficult to go back in the middle of it and replay it, because the controls are weird and I don’t remember them.
72. Super Meat Boy. Played a good amount of hour after seeing the Indie Game: The Movie documentary. Good game, I understand why it is one of the best indies ever.
71. Shovel Knight. Played several hours. Rogue games are not necessarily my type.
69. Life is strange. Loved the game, the story and the mechanics of it. Didn’t really get into the second one, but this one I really liked. Finished it.
68. Heavy Rain. Played a little bit of it, but I didn’t get too much into it. I loved Detroit: Become Human, though.
64. Her Story. Liked it, finished it, forgot about it.
62. Deus Ex: Human Revolution. I loved this game. Finished it several times, in different ways.
61. Until Dawn. Got it recently, played several hours, didn’t really get me. I also don’t really like teenage slasher movies, so maybe this is the reason?
60. Bastion. Played several hours on iOS devices. I should get back into it.
59. Wolfenstein: The New Order. The same Wolfenstein tropes, but I love them. Finished this one.
58. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Played several hours. Didn’t have the time to get into it as much as I wanted to. Since I have a history of playing it waaaaay too much, I avoided the game.
49. The Outer Worlds. In the middle of playing it. Still about 5-6 hours in, I’m just learning about the first city. Looks interesting enough to continue playing it.
48. Fez. I played it after the Indie Game: The Movie documentary. Interesting, but I liked Super Meat Boy more.
46. Telltale’s The Walking Dead. Loved it. Played the entire first season on a transatlantic flight where I didn’t have what else to play on my iPad. The 10 hours flight went by in a second.
45. Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus. The same as the previous one. Liked it, finished it, never gonna play it again.
42. Limbo. Creepy atmosferic game and interesting narrative. First game I played along with my neice. Good memories.
41. Gone Home. Really good walking game, great narrative. Loved it, finished it.
40. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. Played several hours. I hated the controls for some reason. Couldn’t continue it.
38. Batman: Arkham City. Played for several hours until I ralised I don’t really like Beat’em’ups and the Batman universe.
37. Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception. My favourite series. Played them all several times. Great story, great characters.
36. Firewatch. Great walking game, great atmosphere, heart breaking story. I wonder how many people looked for a firewatch tower to spend their summers after this one. Finished it.
35. Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End. The best in the series. Feels like one of the best movies and books I’ve ever seen/read.
34. Undertale. Played several hours. Didn’t get it. Stopped playing it.
33. Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. Played about half of it, then life got in the way. I liked it.
27. Fallout 4. Played several hours into it. Didn’t like it.
26. Mass Effect 3. Loved the series. 2 is the best. Even Andromeda is okish.
25. Horizon Zero Dawn. Most expensive game I ever played. Bought a PS4 Pro and a 4K TV just to play it. Loved it. Finished it several times. I’m waiting for the story to continue in HZD2.
23. Marvel’s Spider-Man. Played about 10 hours. I liked the mechanics, but I’m not that interested in the universe and the stories. Stopped after a while. This is one game I wanted to love, but didn’t, unfortunately.
21. Stardew Valley. I love this game. I have it on all the platforms, especially iPad and Switch. I have about 30-40 hours into it, so I’m not that crazy about it, but when I have time, I start it again.
20. Bloodborne. Started it, played several hours, stopped. Not my type of game.
19. Journey. I played it for about 2 hours. Didn’t really get into it.
18. Red Dead Redemption II. Just got it recently. Played about 2 hours. Going back to it.
17. BioShock Infinite. Played it, finished it, don’t remember much about it.
15. Rocket League. Along with Mortal Kombat X, the multiplayer couch game in the family. I’m not good.
12. Fallout: New Vegas. Played more hours than Fallout 4, still didn’t get into it. I like The Outer Worlds more.
11. Mass Effect 2. This is the game that got me into the series. Loved it. I hate that I can’t play it on the PS4 in any way. I also don’t own a PC to play there. Loved it, loved it. The first game that made me love the characters and get that kind of connection with them.
10. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Love it. Replaying it now on the Switch, because why not?
8. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Played several hours into it. Didn’t catch me.
7. Grand Theft Auto V. Played about 10 hours. Not my type of narrative and game. Stopped it. Maybe I’ll retry it again sometime.
6. Super Mario Odyssey. Played several hours. Not my type of game, even if I love the mechanics. I still have it on my switch so I might return to it.
5. Red Dead Redemption. Loved it. My fiancée remembers it as the first game she lost me for a week. Still shudders when she hears about using a horse to go across the map of a game :)
4. God of War. I liked it, I finished it, I didn’t love it. I don’t kow why, but I didn’t get that much into the narrative as I thought I would.
2. The Last of Us. The best game I ever played. Since I love narrative based games, keep that in mind. The only action-adventure my fiancée ever played because she saw me playing it and she wanted the story for herself as well.
1. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. About 15 hours in, I struggle to like it, but it’s getting better. I kept coming back to it for the last 2 years or so.
There you have it. 48 games. I played others as well, of course, especially on the mobile devices. I mean, I didn’t put on the list Candy Crush and the hundred hours of “research” I put into it :D and several hundred dollars, just for good measure, as well.
The games above are just the ones that are also part of the list at the Den of Geek. Go there and read more, since it’s not mine.
Gaming books recommendations
- Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture – The book to read to understand what was like to create games during the 1990s. With, maybe, the first real rockstar of gaming, John Romero.
- Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World – in case you need to explain to someone that gaming is not only about staying in front of a screen
- Ready Player One – an SciFi book based in VR and knowledge of popculture and early gaming titles. Also, the movie.
