What games are just objective masterpieces?
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There are a lot of answers, mine will be drowned but... there it is. In no particular order :
- Final Fantasy X
- Clair Obscur : Expedition 33
- Baldur's Gate 3
- Kingdom Hearts 1 & 2 (but you had to be there when it came out)
- Metal Gear Solid 3
- Shadow Hearts : Covenant
- Kya : Dark Lineage (the bugs were a feature)
- Horizon : Zero Dawn
- Megaman (any megaman will do)
- Crash Bandicoot Trilogy
- Spyro Trilogy
- Pokemon Yellow/Crystal/Emerald
- Pokemon Jade (yes that bootleg version)
- The Last of Us (pt. I & II)
- Astroneer
- GTA : Vice City
- Unreal Tournament 2004
- CS 1.6 played in the most dirty lan at your disposal
- Control
- Tetris
- Neverwinter Nights 2
- Dragon Age : Origins
- Quake III
- Bomberman
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Bloodborne.
It’s also easy to tell most lemmyzens are PC gamers since I hardly saw anyone mention it and it is OBJECTIVELY THE GREATEST GAME EVER MADE.
While I am primarily a PC gamer, it really is the best thing From Software has ever done and an objective masterpiece. I sometimes waffle between whether Bloodborne or Sekiro is my favorite, but regardless of my own preference, I do think Bloodborne is the best.
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Just out of curiosity, listing the games mentioned here as of this writing by their date of release:
Release Date Game 1980 Pac-Man 1985 The Oregon Trail (assuming widely-played 1985 game) 1985 Tetris 1986 Kid Icarus 1988 Mega Man 2 1988 Super Mario Brothers 3 1988 The Guardian Legend 1989 Abadox: The Deadly Inner War 1989 Ironsword: Wizards & Warriors II 1989 Monster Party 1989 Populous 1989 Sweet Home 1990 Dr. Mario 1990 Final Fantasy III 1991 Battletoads (assuming original game) 1991 The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past 1992 Ecco the Dolphin 1992 Sonic the Hedgehog 2 1992 Super Mario Kart 1993 Dinopark Tycoon 1993 Doom 1993 Gauntlet IV 1993 Lufia & the Fortress of Doom (assuming first game) 1993 Mega Man X 1994 Donkey Kong Country 1994 Earthworm Jim 1994 Sonic & Knuckles 1994 Sonic the Hedgehog 3 1994 Super Metroid 1994 The Lion King 1995 Chrono Trigger 1997 Castlevania: Symphony of the Night 1997 Diablo 1997 Final Fantasy VII 1997 Mega Man X4 1997 Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee 1997 Snowboard Kids 1998 Banjo-Kazooie 1998 Metal Gear Solid 1998 Sonic Adventure 1998 South Park 1998 StarCraft: Brood War 1999 Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings 1999 Heroes of Might and Magic III 1999 Planescape: Torment 1999 Quake III Arena 1999 RollerCoaster Tycoon 1999 Silent Hill 1999 Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike 1999 Sven Co-op 1999 Unreal Tournament 1999 Worms Armageddon 2000 Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 2000 Diablo II 2000 Resident Evil CODE: Veronica 2000 SimCity 3000 Unlimited 2000 Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 2001 Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies 2001 Final Fantasy X 2001 Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty 2001 Shenmue II 2002 The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind 2003 Beyond Good & Evil 2003 Need for Speed: Underground 2003 Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2004 Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War 2004 Champions of Norrath 2004 Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas 2004 Gran Turismo 4 2004 Half Life 2 2004 Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater 2004 The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap 2005 Champions: Return to Arms 2005 Psychonauts 2005 Shadow of the Colossus 2006 Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War 2006 Ōkami 2007 BioShock 2007 Dark Souls 2007 Mass Effect 2007 Portal 2008 Clonk Rage 2008 Left 4 Dead 2008 Mirror's Edge 2008 Super Smash Bros. Brawl 2009 Dragon Age: Origins 2009 Forza Motorsport 3 2009 Killing Floor 2009 Left 4 Dead 2 2009 Plants vs. Zombies 2009 Steins;Gate 2010 Battlefield: Bad Company 2 2010 Limbo 2010 Nier 2010 Planet Minigolf 2011 Bastion 2011 Portal 2 2011 Terraria 2011 The Binding of Isaac 2012 Hotline Miami 2012 The House in Fata Morgana 2012 Tokyo Jungle 2014 Forza Horizon 2 2014 LISA: The Painful 2015 Bloodborne 2015 Ori and the Blind Forest 2015 The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 2015 Undertale 2016 Doom (2016) 2016 Kirby: Planet Robobot 2016 Stardew Valley 2016 The Witness 2016 Titanfall 2 2016 Tyranny 2017 Little Nightmares 2017 Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (for Deluxe version) 2017 Nier: Automata 2017 Night in the Woods 2017 Super Mario Odyssey 2017 The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2018 Celeste 2018 Donut County 2018 Return of the Obra Dinn 2018 Rimworld 2018 Subnautica 2019 A Short Hike 2019 Disco Elysium 2019 Outer Wilds 2019 Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice 2019 Slay the Spire 2020 Cyberpunk 2077 2020 Factorio 2020 Hades 2021 Everhood: An Ineffable Tale of the Inexpressible Divine Moments of Truth 2021 Psychonauts 2 2022 Elden Ring 2022 Lil Gator Game 2023 Baldur's Gate 3 2023 Dave the Diver 2024 Balatro Missing Half-life (the first one).
That game was the first one to feature scripted scenes during player interaction and it was mind-blowing.
Plus, it had the most sophisticated story ever seen in an FPS before. -
I love STALKER with all my heart, and if we're talking atmosphere and vibes and even world building it is up there. But it does not really belong in the objective masterpiece category. Flawed masterpiece, maybe.
Also I think Call of Pripyat is the better STALKER game, but it might be controversial.
Yeah, but it still popped into my mind sooner than other games, dunno why,
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Metro 2033. Played it in the dark with good surround sound headphones on, and it's positively claustrophobic.
Last Light is good too, but at little too optimistic IMHO. 2033 nails that endless pit of despair feeling, with just enough lucky breaks that you might make it through.
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I remember trying the demo to Homeworld when I was a kid, it came with one of those old school PC GAMER demo CDs. I think I was too young to understand how to play it effectively, but still loved it because I found the ambience of the experience so memorizing while hyper-cozy. Would you say it she's well as something worth going back and playing now, and what of the sequel(s)?
I still repplay now and then, there's no game like it.
Sadly the sequals failed to capture the grace of the original, though I've not tried 3 yet.
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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.
wrote last edited by [email protected]Do you think Return of the Obra Dinn would belong alongside these or is that game too flawed by comparison? I ask because I myself am not sure.
Oh, actually Disco Elysium would fit right in here as well as a "fully-realized microcosms where the primary game is unfolding the complex origami of the setting".
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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.
wrote last edited by [email protected]Feels odd to include Pyre over Hades.
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Super Metroid
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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Disco Elysium
Alpha Centauri
Super Marios Bros 3
Bloodborne
Ori 1 & 2
Fallout 1 & 2
Planescape: Torment
The Outer Wildswrote last edited by [email protected]Atari: Frogger
NES: RBI Baseball / Tecmo Bowl.Genesis: Phantasy Star IV
N64: Ocarina.
PSX: FF IX.PSP: Lumines
Saturn: Panzer Dragoon
Dreamcast: Rez and Skies of ArcadiaPS2 Vice City
XBOX: PD Orta
360: Child of Eden / Shadow ComplexPC agree with all yours. Would add Syndicate, Witcher 3, & red alert
DS: Dawn of Sorrow
Neo Geo: Last Blade 2 -
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Halo 1-3
Forza horizon 2 & 3
COD blacc ops 1-2
MW 1 + 2
Need for Speed Most Wanted/Underground/2/Carbon
More I can’t think of rn
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Do you think Return of the Obra Dinn would belong alongside these or is that game too flawed by comparison? I ask because I myself am not sure.
Oh, actually Disco Elysium would fit right in here as well as a "fully-realized microcosms where the primary game is unfolding the complex origami of the setting".
Haven't actually played these two but from what I gather, they definitely fit the list!
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Celeste. Emotional narrative that seamlessly blends with the gameplay, which implementa never before seen accessibility configuration, enhanced by one of the best soundtracks ever. All while being cheap, indie, and one of the best speedrun games ever made
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How come no one has mentioned “Life is strange” yet? Also, “A plague tale”.
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Historically a masterpiece has been a (or the) work that demonstrates an artist is capable of utilizing their medium to its fullest extent, i.e. it has been mastered. Per ye olde Wiki:
Historically, a "masterpiece" was a work of a very high standard produced by an apprentice to obtain full membership, as a "master", of a guild or academy in various areas of the visual arts and crafts.
In that light, I'd say the best qualified would be games that completely utilized the capabilities of the platform they were designed for or, perhaps of interest to more people, expanded what everyone thought could be done with those systems. Games which were furthermore well polished and complete, and did not have much room for improvement taking into account the constraints they had to work with at the time. (For instance: No duh we could make Mario 64 run at a higher framerate and have better textures to look nicer on hardware now. That doesn't mean it wasn't arguably a masterpiece of its time, on the system it was on.) This doesn't just have to be technical stuff -- It could be the way the game used storytelling, its gameplay mechanics, or anything else.
Spyro and Crash trilogies on the PSX, as well as the Quake 2 port, would definitely merit being called technical masterpieces
On the original Xbox, Phantom Dust would fit that bill, despite being a commercial failure at the time. The tldr is that you create a collection of spells (attacks, traps, dodges, curses, buffs) and try to grab them and the "mana" during the real time duels, in order to beat your opponents. Terrain is semi destructible and you have to take into consideration the trajectory of your spells - https://www.xbox.com/games/store/phantom-dust/9PCDNBHR11MR
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Have you played Prey? Only other game to scratch that same itch for me.
Prey 2017 or Prey 2006?
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Nioh 2 is one of my favorite soulslikes, but falls short of masterpiece in my opinion due to the repeatedly recycled levels.
Have you played the mainline souls titles? The NG+ system in Nioh 2 leads out into new unique maps (The abyss) rather than being the same game with revamped enemy placement and health nine times lol.
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RDR2. Witcher 3. Fallout New Vegas.
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RDR2. Witcher 3. Fallout New Vegas.
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Fallout 2
Wasteland 3.
