There is no "objective" when talking about subjective terms.
My personal, SUBJECTIVE favorites are Mass Effect, Titanfall 2, Subnautica, Stardew Valley, Ori and the Blind Forest, Dave the Diver, Balatro, and Portal 1 and 2
this post was submitted on 27 May 2025
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Factorio, Terraria, Half-Life 2, Portal 1/2, Limbo, Night in the Woods, Lil Gator Game
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Supergiant games' holy trinity: Bastion, Transistor and Pyre.
Also, the only Borderland games 1 and 2; don't believe the lies there are no more true Borderlands games and no there most certainly is no movie.
There's also one other, but you'll need a crowbar or a gravity gun in hand for me to tell you about it.
You are wrong about borderlands as there is one more and it is pretty muc h perfect.
Tales from the Borderlands.
Shame they never made a sequel for it but the artistry, music and story are all so well crafted. Someone loved Borderlands making that.
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Hades
Hollow Knight
Noita
Super Metroid
Prey (2017)
DOOM (2016)
Factorio
Stardew Valley
SOMA was great
I've been craving another experience like SOMA but unfortunately nothing even comes close. It was probably the coolest and most disturbing story I've ever seen. Finishing that game gave me an existential crisis for like 2 days after. It was that good.
I feel like Soma was a decent metaphysical question wrapped in a okayish walking simulator.
It got a lot of praise, but basically boils down to the question "what makes you you" with nothing else about it standing out.
If the gameplay isn't a driving factor of making the game objectively good, then I don't think it counts.
Personally I think story can make a game stand out far more than graphics or gameplay. I also disagree that the game boiled down to one question. While it was the primary focus of the narrative, the underwater laboratories and world building/history was amazing.
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Clair Obscur has been the best game I've played in a long while, absolute masterpiece
Super Metroid
How come no one has mentioned “Life is strange” yet? Also, “A plague tale”.
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Age of Empires 2 /w The Conquers expansion pack.
Roller Coaster Tycoon 1. (2 was weaker without OpenRCT2, the real masterpiece, but idk if unfinished projects should count or not)
Quake 3 Arena, Unreal Tournament 1999 GOTY, Worms Armageddon, SimCity 3000 Unlimited, Forza Horizon 2 / Motorsport 3, Need for Speed Underground 1, Clonk! Rage, Metal Gear Solid 1/2/3, Ace Combat 4, Okami, Tokyo Jungle, Zelda BOTW, Mario Odyssey, Sven Co-Op, Killing Floor 1, Final Fantasy 7, LISA: The Painful, Everhood 1, Deus Ex 1, Left 4 Dead 1/2, Portal 2, Battlefield Bad Company 2... Champions of Norrath and Return to Arms, Diablo 1, Baldur's Gate 3 makes the list...NIER both games. Planet MiniGolf.
I could go on and on.
Chromehounds was the greatest mech game on shitbox 360 and you can't change my mind.
The sheer variety in player created metas was glorious to behold. Sure, you could play how the game encouraged you to play and hang your weapons in "normal" configurations. But you could also bury whole teams in indirect fire with a triple double from across the map. You could build a little punchy boi buggy with a dick piston, cockpit, wheels, and nothing else. You could even try to sweat the meta in the chicken leg howitzer or the turtle up in the armored crab.
The only limits were creativity and spacer availability lmfaooo
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Psychonauts 1 and 2.
Some of the most imaginative big budget games in existence, from themes to art style to level design
Doom (93) I guess ?
Also HL and HL2
Red Alert 2
Heroes of Might and Magic 3
Super Mario Brothers 3
Curious to hear what the criteria for "masterpiece" is, otherwise I think it is just peoples' subjective opinion of what makes a great game that they also think others might agree about being a great game. Genuinely curious, interested in discussion, not saying this to shut down any of the answers here.
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Prey, System Shock 2, Outer Wilds, and Undertale are fully-realized microcosms where the primary game is unfolding the complex origami of the setting. All of them absolutely beautiful to experience.
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Team Fortress 2
The best teamshooter game to date, endless copy cats that suck ass.
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Heres a list of some favorites:
Imperfect perfection: Morrowind
Perfect perfection: Starcraft Brood War
Objective perfection: Plants vs Zombies
Subjective perfection: Knights of the Old Republic
Perfect for its time: Gauntlet IV
Perfect timeless: Sonic 2
Perfect for its genre: LOZ Minish Cap
Perfect All-in-one: Shenmue II
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I'm taking this to mean games that stand out in or define their genre, are widely considered to be excellent, are timeless, and there's very little if any fat to trim.
- Super Mario Brothers - NES
- Super Mario 64
- Dark Souls - maybe Elden Ring takes over?
- Return of the Obra Dinn
- Half Life 2 - honorable mention: Left 4 Dead 2
- Diablo 2
- Doom
- Tetris
- Chrono Trigger
- Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
- Portal 2
- Little Nightmares - honorable mention: INSIDE
- GTA SA
- Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2
These aren't necessarily my favorite games, but games I think are well respected. I probably missed a bunch.
Hollow Knight is peak