What games are just objective masterpieces?
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Katamari Damacy. It has a reputation for being silly Japanese nonsense, but the gameplay is brilliant, the graphics are timeless, the soundtrack is incredible, and it has some surprising thematic depth.
Na naaaaa na na na na na, na na, na naaaa Katamari Damacyyyyyyy
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"Abzû". That's a hill I'm willing to die on. Got to me even more than Journey or Jusant.
Also, thought very differently, "Senua Hellblade" because it perfectly displayed a condition that I could never fit into words.
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Half-Life 2, both Psychonauts games, the Arkham series
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• Sonic the Hedgehog ( Genesis/Mega Drive )
• Chuzzle Deluxe
• Borderlands
• Baba Is You
Those would be some picks I would say are objective masterpieces, but that's subjective, I guess.
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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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I know this is a hot take, but: BG3 is a good game. Clair Obscur is a work of art.
I must say you are really getting me hyped to play this game. Bgs3 was a masterpiece, and i also love games like Persona so i am really excited to try a French jrpg like Clair Obscur
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Albion by BlueByte
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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.
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.
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Journey
There is not a single word in the game, barely any control but the game take you through an emotional story.
It's multiplayer in a sense that you might meet another player, they can help you, you can help them or just continue on your path and despite not having any words it just fell like a genuine, pure connection with someone.
And the music is amazing.
Journey is indeed absolutely fantastic. It finally got a PC port a while ago after languishing on the PS3 for quite some years, and its hardware requirements are probably low enough in the modern era that practically anybody should be able to experience it.
My only gripe is that online randos seem not to understand the meditation achievement, and get antsy when you try to entice them to sit there with you until the achievement pops. And since you can't type at them you can't communicate to them what's going on.
I got the trophy on PS3 back in the day but I haven't successfully wrangled anybody into helping me get the Steam achievement for that yet...
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Zelda Breath of the wild for me. Don't get me wrong I enjoyed Tears of the Kingdom but breath of the wild scratched a perfect itch for me. Especially master mode. Well over 1000 hours played.
I also maintain that Breath of the Wild was superior to Tears of the Kingdom. Apparently this opinion makes Zelda fans incredibly salty.
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My Picks...
Deus Ex (So many games try to be this and fail)
Cyberpunk (This one eventually measured up)
Alpha Centauri (Innovation mixed with familiarity and setting)
Fallout 2 (they're all good. Fallout 2 is special)
Kotor (Star Wars story telling in a beautiful way)
Baldur's Gate 2 and 3 (I'm stunned that 3 was a worthy successor)
Homeworld (One of the World's truly beautiful games)
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Super Hexagon
It's about as simple as a 'modern' game can be (I read there was even a port of it to Commodore 64.) but it's a finely tuned machine. When you lose - and you will, a lot - it feels like mostly your own fault and not the game's.
The difficulty levels very accurately start at Hard for the easiest one. There are 6 total levels, the next 5 difficulties are Harder, Hardest, Hardester, Hardestest, and Hardestestest.
With much time and luck I can beat the first level (unlocking the 4th). On a lost save I had unlocked the 5th level by completing the 2nd, and have only ever seen the 6th in videos from other people. I would have to beat the 3rd to see it myself, and that's not happening.
The criteria to beat a level is "last for 60 seconds".
I thought at first you guys were thinking of this, and I was puzzled. Then I looked it up.
Crivens, it's like a combination of Tempest and Flappy Bird, but since it's a Terry Cavanagh game it's also been whacked over the head soundly with VVVVVV.
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Metal Gear Solid 1-4. Ecco the dolphin?
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Oh forgot. Best multiplayer game ever has to be Counter Strike 1.6, CS:GO and potentially CS2 in a few years.
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Baldur's Gate 3 is a good game and a worthwhile experience but you can absolutely make quite a lot of very valid critiques about it.
Yeah for a third person isometric RPG with non-linear branching storylines and deep thoughtful story, Disco Elysium positively blows BG3 out of the water.
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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.
Then Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom belong to that category - run smoothly as fuck on one of the lamest consoles there is, and are beautiful and complex.
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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
Glad to see some love for Shenmue
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Then Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom belong to that category - run smoothly as fuck on one of the lamest consoles there is, and are beautiful and complex.
...Just don't look at it too hard when you go to the Great Deku Tree in BotW.
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ketsui deathtiny
castlevania: aria of sorrow
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Yeah for a third person isometric RPG with non-linear branching storylines and deep thoughtful story, Disco Elysium positively blows BG3 out of the water.
BG3 has some very fun gameplay at times, such as the much-lauded variety with which you can deal with the Goblin Camp in Act 1. That's where it shines.
The writing is not really comparable. BG3 is in the "fine for a video game" territory. Disco Elysium's writing is art, both the narratives, the characters, the themes and even the prose itself.
