Top 100 Best Games of All Time (80-71) (Topic)

With a slight delay, we continue to publish a series of materials, where we tried to select the top 100 best games of all time. The task, frankly speaking, is not an easy one, because each game has left a bright mark in history, gained an army of fanatically loyal fans and pushed the gaming industry forward. Therefore, we suggest not to worry too much about the order of games in the top, but rather take note of projects that you missed for some reason.

80. Spec Ops: The Line

War is an unprincipled game of the powers that be, taking the lives of innocent people, and where "good" and "bad" guys are usually determined by which flag you are ready to salute. War is not entertainment, therefore, even in mass video games, they try to present military actions as a series of tragic events and reflect reality in a playful way. For example, recently we witnessed Call of Duty Modern Warfare, in which the developers, according to them, tried to show "gray morality", but it turned out to be nothing more than brown for testing.

But instead of the game The Infinity Ward, we have Spec Ops: The Line, the plot of which best proves the famous quote by Winston Churchill: "War is mostly a catalog of blunders." The main characters of Spec Ops: The Line are not heroes, they are hostages of the situation, hostages of war, where, in an attempt to save their lives and even when trying to act according to their conscience, they will make one mistake after another, washing their hands in the blood of innocent victims.

This is exactly the same gray morality and a touching plot that allows you to bring the game to the pantheon of the 100 best games of all times and peoples. And for dessert, Spec Ops is ready to offer you an exotic setting of post-apocalyptic Dubai, making the tragic journey of the Delta Special Forces truly unforgettable.

79. Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box

Years go by, the masters of the racing genre are still trying to release hits, Need for Speed is once again experiencing a rebirth, but all these are just moments, and the classics are eternal. A classic in the face of the immortal Burnout Paradise, which, even 11 years after its release, remains a reference arcade race. Fly under a crimson sunset on the highway at a speed of 200 km / h, simultaneously turning the opponents' cars into a heap of crumpled metal and all this to the tunes of the forever young Axl Rose from Gund N'Roses ... Could there be anything better?

It seems unlikely to us. Burnout Paradise, like no other race, can convey the adrenaline from ultra-high-speed races, while delighting with a well-chosen soundtrack, believable (as far as possible in an arcade) vehicle physics and still almost the best metal deformation simulation system in history. Seriously, because of her, even the bitterness of a mistake at a turn can be replaced by the joy of watching a spectacular show from crumpled car parts and flying sparks and shards of glass.

Add to this several radically different types of transport and a perfectly implemented open world and you get a race that is several kilometers ahead of all its competitors.

78. Battlefield: Bad Company

Evil USAs are again making lawlessness in the Middle East, while the gallant US army saves children, women and pets to the national anthem, bringing peace and love to every home ... Are you tired of such cliches in the worst traditions of Tom Clancy? Then Battlefield: Bad Company is definitely your choice. Of course, the conflict between the United States and USA has not been done here either, but the main characters are a detachment of those dolts who do not care about patriotic speeches and their main goal is to get hold of gold and ride away laughing into the sunset.

Spoiler alert: this is how their story ends. No tragedy, drama, or "gray morality", Battlefield: Bad Company is a real hooligan comedy set in a military setting and, perhaps, the only truly interesting story campaign in the Battlefeld series. Comedy is generally quite a rare genre in modern games, especially if it is performed at such a high level.

In addition, Battlefield: Bad Company was the first game where the Swedes from DICE tested their new Frostbite engine, and added destructible environments, which made one of the major revolutions in the series. Objectively speaking, Bad Company is probably not the best game in the series, but due to its uniqueness and importance, it easily gets into the top 100 best games of all time.

77. Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory

Several iconic franchises are unfairly gathering dust in the Ubisoft portfolio. But now we would like to focus on the cult stealth action game Splinter Cell, and in particular the best game in the series - Chaos Theory. This is the case when even Tom Clancy's plots are revealed in a complete world, drawing believable plots of modern international conflicts and entangling the gamer in a geopolitical game, forcing with bated breath to follow the twists and turns of the script and the development of Sam Fisher from a corporate pawn into a complex and independent character. p>

But, let's admit, the Splinter Cell series is not primarily a plot, but gameplay that will allow you to transform into a 21st century predator and prove that one is a warrior in the field. To achieve your goals, you will need a string of gadgets, attentiveness, a bit of imagination and, if possible, a good speaker system in order to remain a first-class secret agent even in complete darkness.

By the sum of all its components, Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory is a first-class stealth game and a game that, despite its venerable age, will not even be one year with enviable regularity in the list of the best games on PC and consoles.

76. Team Fortress 2

Despite the fact that Team Fortress 2 was released 4 years earlier than Portal 2, it was the multiplayer shooter that became the game that started the decline of Valve as developers of singleplayer projects. Team Fortress 2 was used as a field for experimentation and within a few years after its release, it marked an important milestone in gaming history, eventually becoming the first successful service game, switched to Free 2 Play and introduced microtransactions to Western projects. Does all this make Team Fortress 2 a bad game? Not at all.

Even more, in 12 years TF2 has fully exploded and still ranks among the best multiplayer games in history. Excellent humor, good visual design and, most importantly, a string of completely different characters with unique gameplay created a whole game that you always want to return to. And over the years (thanks, of course, to the abundant filling of the game with new content), Team Fortress 2 becomes better, like good wine.

Of course, today, 12 years later, Team Fortress 2 has been overtaken by other giants in the multiplayer arena, but in our opinion, it still remains the pinnacle of Valve's talent in creating multiplayer games.

75 .Super Meat Boy

Perhaps now is the time to dilute the top of the best games with a small indie project, which was created by the creative duo of Tommy Refenes and Edmund McMillen. Only two people were enough to cause a real nightmare of thousands of gamers and hundreds of shattered keyboards and gamepads. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the great and ruthless Super Meat Boy - one of the most hardcore games of our time.

A 2D platformer that makes the most of your own reflexes and as much requires the precision of a Darts champion as it does the care of a chess grandmaster. But complexity alone is not enough to elevate the game to the top, the value of Super Meat Boy is in its refinement in every mechanic and a huge amount of secret content, which makes it difficult to break away from masochistic pleasure even after losing thousands of nerve cells.

Stylish design, an abundance of black humor, a funny story and the already iconic soundtrack shouldn't be written off either. Super Meat Boy is the perfect game in its niche, especially if you don't mind the challenge.

74. Kingdom Come: Deliverance

Kingdom Come: Deliverance is a true victim of the exorbitant ambitions of Daniel Vavra and Warhorse Studios. Czech developers, chasing the desire to create a unique, large-scale, hardcore and immersive role-playing game, gave birth to a clumsy giant, which, even almost two years after its release, is teeming with technical errors, bugs and unsuccessful game design oversights.

Another thing is that Daniel Vavre in Kingdom Come: Deliverance managed to realize almost all of his ideas, creating an RPG like nothing else. Every element of the game really works and does not seem superfluous. Whether it's the need to learn Latin to read books or keep track of what food the protagonist eats. From small cogs to big rags to riches stories and blood vendetta, the small studio has managed to create the hulking yet extremely addicting RPG Colossus.

Without a shadow of hesitation, Kingdom Come: Deliverance is the first non-isometric and truly open-world RPG since the cult Fallout: New Vegas, while sporting impressive graphics and an abundance of well-choreographed cutscenes.

73. Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction

As you look at the list of the cult Blizzard games, the developers sold their soul to Diablo himself for the opportunity to create almost perfect, additive game mechanics that add up to hundreds of hours. The best example of this is Diablo 2, which offers hundreds of thousands of demons of different sizes and colors to call. The essence of the gameplay is trivial, the role-playing system is simplified to the point of impossibility, just know what to collect loot and return to familiar two-dimensional locations over and over again. But this is the case when all ingenious is simple.

7 classes, 5 acts, 30 missions and an almost endless number of possible character builds, locations and enemy options. The game engine, as if from a constructor, mixes several variables, reassembling the content at the location, which guarantees a constant feeling of novelty. The fascination and dozens of imitators that have generally degenerated into a new genre allow us with a clear conscience to put in the top 100 best games of all time Diablo 2.

Separately, it is worth noting the triquel in the face of Diablo 3. Not all ideas were fully implemented, the role-playing system was even more simplified, and the gloomy aesthetics were waved with a pen. But it's still a great game and makes a good replacement for Diablo 2 for those who are intimidated by archaic graphics.

72. Okami HD

The Japanese game industry has always stood apart from the Western world and more often than not offered non-trivial solutions and unusual game concepts. Games that, although they did not find a strong response among a mass audience, invariably become cult masterpieces, real works of art in a playful way. And one of these games - Okami, which has undergone four reprints, constantly reaps a crop of dozens from leading game publications and sold a rather modest circulation of almost 3 million copies in 14 years.

What's so special about Okami? Even though the role of the protagonist in it is assigned to the divine she-wolf Amaterasu, the world is made in the style of the Chinese technique of drawing sumi-yo, and the divine brush is an important tool for solving puzzles and battles, because of which the player himself will have to draw symbols, freeing the magic the strength of Amaterasu.

But in words it is not very impressive, but in reality Okami feels like the work of Hayao Miyazaki - the same measured, fascinating and hiding under a colorful cover a string of difficult questions and parting words for all mankind.

71. What Remains of Edith Finch

Speaking of games as works of art, I'd like to end this part of the top 100 best games of all time with What Remains of Edith Finch. And the comparison with art is not only our assessment, in 2017 in numerous reviews this is the epithet that was most often applied to the creation of the studio Giant Sparrow. Perhaps because the game does not resemble the usual projects of the gaming industry so much, the gameplay in it is rather primitive and What Remains of Edith Finch is mostly an audiovisual feast, almost the same art as a movie or painting to the accompaniment of exciting music.

But calling What Remains of Edith Finch just a walking simulator is also not worth it. On the contrary, the developers tried to approach the gameplay with the maximum variety, allowing the player to visit a dozen of unusual interactive stories. At one moment you turn into a cat and arrange a bird hunt, and at another you become a member of the chamber RTS, wearing the crown of the new king of the fantasy kingdom on your head.

What Remains of Edith Finch always surprises, from the first minutes to the final credits, made in the style of a wall photo gallery. And the creation of Giant Sparrow correctly speaks about the theme of death, while not forgetting to serve dramatic episodes under the sauce of irony and leave hope for the best.

Check out the previous installments of the top 100 best games of all time: 100-91, 90-91.

The Topic of Article: Top 100 Best Games of All Time (80-71).
Author: Jake Pinkman