Best game you ever played (no multiples)

[Hell Swarm]

What is the best game you ever played? Not top 3 or 5. Every post should have a single game name and a description of why you consider it the best. It doesn't have to be perfect, it only has to be the BEST FOR YOU.

Doom 2 is the best game I've ever played. It's an FPS game with all the fat removed and enemies are very fun to fight. The additional enemies over original Doom really help to spice up the combat encounters and add fear back into fighting other wise easy set ups with predictable space management the original suffered from. The super shotgun sounds amazing with a decent set of speakers and adds a lot to the experience when it becomes your primary weapon and your flow state syncs up with the BOOM, click reload timing. Adding to the overall immersion since you start to sync up with predictable timings in an almost hypnotic way.

 

[Lemming42]

Tomb Raider 2, masterclass level design without any real deadweight. One of the only sequels in videogame history that actually improves and expands on the original in every way without feeling bloated or fucking it all up. Takes the superb, precise movement mechanics of the original and pushes them to the absolute limit to create some absolutely stunning puzzles and platforming challenges.

 

[Dark Souls II]

Dark Souls II

 

[amandachen]

Magic & Mayhem (fantasy RTS)
The closest thing to playing a Ray Harryhausen film. Also has the best soundtrack.

 

[rubinstein]

mask of the betrayer
the atmosphere is simply amazing. I love the writing, which sets a melancholic tone and explores themes of love and recurring events. the companions are great, and the NPCs are memorable. the soundtrack is excellent for an expansion pack too. the visuals are mediocre though. The models are low-poly, they were bad even for their era, and aesthetically only few characters and assets stand out.
motb is also a decent game. nwn2 is not as bad as those who only played the original campaign 20 years ago might think. While the game could have offered more freedom and more side content where player can express themselves, the combat system remains solid. The game just needed a great module to highlight its strengths, and motb truly is one.

 

[Falksi]

Thunderforce 3

Over the past 30 odd years, I have never once played it and not come away from it buzzing my tits off. It's just 30-ish minutes of pure thrive, like having a mint shag with a lush bit of dotty totty.

Easy to finish for beginners and casual play, good-ish challenge on Mania difficulty for when you want some pushback, incredibly constructed, every single tune is an amazing banger, extremely creative...just fucking mint.

 

[Gandalf]

I really don't know. The games I enjoy are maybe not the best ones in the world.

 

[Butter]

Deus Ex. It portrays Chinese culture and customs more accurately than any other game I've played.

 

[Sjukob]

Doom 2 is the best game I've ever played.

Doom is, quite possibly, the best game to ever be made by humanity, not just up until this present moment, but also throughout the whole time. Even in the future, no matter how far forward you go to, Doom will still be the best game ever made.

 

[Harthwain]

Lords of the Realm 2.

It's an amazing blend of turn-based and real-time strategy (also playable in multiplayer!). It predates Medieval: Total War and holds up really well even today. I have a bunch of great classics I enjoy going back to, but this is THE game I think of when it comes to "the best game I ever played". The only downsides are that diplomacy against AI is not really a thing and it is easy to overpower the AI on the tactical map by taking advantage of AI's slowness when it tries to position itself before the clash of arms.

 

[Dr1f7]

heh my favorit e game is called GETTING LAID!!!
not taht any of u woudl know about about that fucking NERRRRDS

 

[luj1]

It doesn't have to be perfect, it only has to be the BEST FOR YOU.

Quake II on the PC. It was just groundbreaking in so many ways, really showed me what is possible to do in a video game. Loved the industrial aesthetic, non-linear gameplay and hand-crafted levels packed with secrets and detail. Weapons felt awesome and so did turning enemies into gibs. The music was perfect too. And of course multiplayer.

 

[Hag]

Go
Not that fun though, more mind wrecking, but otherwise perfect.

 

[Crispy]

X-COM: UFO Defense

 

[NecroLord]

Thief.

 

[ds]

I'm not sure I can really select a singular best game but Arx Fatalis is certainly the one that has managed to steal the most time from me.

 

[EtcEtcEtc]

heh my favorit e game is called GETTING LAID!!!
not taht any of u woudl know about about that fucking NERRRRDS

It's the anime picture that really makes this next level.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/304410/Hexcells_Infinite/

It's the perfect puzzle game. Pure logic. You can solve every puzzle without guessing but it's hard as hell. Also visually/aurally appealing.

It's probably not my FAVORITE of all time, but it's the best pure game (that hasn't already been listed here)

 

[Abu Antar]

Boring answer is boring, but Championship Manager 01/02. Copy/pasting from another thread. I have played thousands of hours over the years. If I had to guess, I would guess no less than 10000 hours.

It is probably my favorite game of all time, only rivaled by Championship Manager 00/01 and Arcanum.

But why?
-Quick to get going, and quick to play. You can be done with a season in five hours or less. While I like many of the newer games, they take longer to start. I'm playing FM24 (the same goes for FM20, I don't buy them as regularly as I used to), and five hours won't even get you to the midpoint of the season.
-I love the diversity of tactics that you can use, and be successful with. There's a myriad of ways to build your tactics, and not only that: You can move around your players positions, fine tuning them as much as you like.
-I have very fond memories of playing this versus my brothers as kids. All three of us would pick a team and challenge each other. This one is as subjective as it gets, but we still challenge each other every couple of years, even if the save files usually aren't that long.
-Less bullshitting around with other stuff than actually just managing the team. While I get why they try to add as much stuff as they can to the newer games, I just want to play matches.
-Great, and easy database to play around with. Not a lot of crap to deal with. Even someone like me can get into it, and just edit what he wants. One funny memory was when we edited in ourselves in the game, as 14 year old wonderkids. I was doing the best, and bid to buy both of my brothers (the players in the game), and they both got unhappy, because they weren't allowed to. Begrudgingly, I had to agree to delete the game. The butthurt was real!
-Easy database fix leads me to another reason. Thanks to an easy to edit database, there are dedicated people who update it with current squads, teams, competitions. The last update I played was for last season. Not only that, but they also change the tactics to match current day tactics used. There's even options for inflation, so the values of player values, wages, income, etc go up. They can change a lot.
-There's more, but these are the biggest reasons. Well, one more thing is that it's still fun to play all these years later.

 

[Losus4]

In terms of cost to gameplay, Morrowind. I bought it from a bargain bin for £3... put in 1000s of hours since 2009. Still the game I play the most.

 

[NecroLord]

In terms of cost to gameplay, Morrowind. I bought it from a bargain bin for £3... put in 1000s of hours since 2009. Still the game I play the most.

Those prices back then...
Compare them to prices now.
You were paying to play quality games.

Fuck...

 

[Lagi]

Age of Wonders 1

I check all games i played on gog and steam. This one i clocked most h. I spend most h modding it (drawing graphics). I stopped playing it once i discovered how vanilla mechanic are broken (10def hero+7 ballistas), then years after i clock another hundred(?) of hours with mods.

- strategic map is beautiful and very readable.
- game formula suits me the best. Paint map with your color. Dont bother with kingdom development, just pump units. Its a Warlords 3 with a spice of Master of Magic, all packed in a wonderful, hand draw, colourful box.
- it has lots of tiny detail, that you can tell devs put love into, just didnt have online community to iron bugs. Like altars that hit doom stack on main map. Or razing structures. You can select all units with square selection like in RTS. Spells that can absolutely break the game (no-fucks-given). Even the dragon menu in bottom left corner.

dont get me wrong its old, buggy and has outdated mechanic. Each faction has copy paste units.

Also the engine dont allow this game to be stretch any more - there is no AoE skills in tactical combat f.ex. Or you cannot setup Mana for units cost/support. Limited number of skill prevent from creating new units roles. (im still speaking about modded aow1 Transportation mechanic that allow trains, and prevent stacks in tactical combat. min/max mana research to quickly gain all spells. Relation mechanic that is wonky (other races will revolt, despite your efforts, which lead to migrating all cities into your native race - which doesnt make sense that I repopulate thousands of people in a 4 days).

this game need open source soo much that im ready to pay patreon for the wannabe dev.

and the campaign! the campaign!!

i am only playing custom scenarios. Its been a decade since the last time i give a fuck about narrative plot in any game.

 

[BadassNonbinaryPrincess]

^ I probably spent thousands of hours in that game, I love it too. But my answer would be Everquest. It is the only game I know that is full of depth where you still learn important things months or years after starting it. It is also huge and packed with content so you can get absorbed for a long time. It has a lot of problems too though.

Good:
It is very open. It is not technically an open world because it is split into zones but each one is huge and you can go in any direction and find stuff to do.
Awesome challenging realtime combat, so you can die a lot at first. But you can practice your combat moves and later on you get good and learn a lot, and can do things that other people couldn't do. High skill cap.
There are multiple classes that are pretty different and the game plays very differently with some of them. Some classes are simple and basic which some people like, but some classes are advanced and amazing. (esp. Bard, Druid, Necro, Enchanter)
Best dungeons I have ever seen.
Great itemization.
"Emergent gameplay".

Bad:
It is basically dead lol. The official game is really lame now. P99 can be quite good but has some big problems too.
It was too grindy and death penalty was too harsh.
It is too dependent on population. Early days had too many players for the size of the world and nowadays there are not enough people to even find a group unless you go out of your way.
Expansion packs kept taking the game further away from greatness. The first 2 are awesome, then it dips a bit. A few years later they are pumping out crap and you had to buy one per year to keep playing with people. (Game was run by shitbags from day 1)
I think Raiding is bad and boring and it completely took over the game and it takes people away from the best parts of the game.

 

[Reality]

Roller Coaster Tycoon 1

The top of the management genre. Has an unequalled attract screen. Hard to pass the main menu without letting it loop.

It has endless amounts of charm with its hand drawn sprites. It also has an incredibly functional UI , and a strong implementation of movable tracker windows.

The time limit (4 years = 2 hours) is also pretty much perfect for what I want out of a single level.

I choose RCT 1 over RCT 2 and Open RCT because for me it has an extra "versus" aspect that puts it on top. That is, you vs Chris Sawyer : the level goals are easy enough but I don't feel like I have creative ownership of a level until I have put in stuff that is cooler than his pre placed set pieces ; Looking at Three Monkey Park drives me to step up my own game with racing coasters, running them in and out of tunnels, using scenery with the ride, actually naming them instead of leaving them as steel coaster 1 , wooden coaster 2 . RCT2 loses on this because 90% of the new levels start as open fields instead of being mostly empty levels with 1-2 lone setpieces.

 

[Data4]

Kerbal Space Program pre-1.0 release. Never have I been that autistic with a game in my entire life.

 

[JarlFrank]

Thief: The Dark Project.
It's difficult to decide between Thief 1 and Thief 2, especially when fan missions are considered (and nowadays with the NewDark patch they essentially run on the same version of the engine anyway), but when it comes to just the vanilla campaign, the original game wins out for having far more memorable levels.
Thief 2 has a more consistent quality, while Thief 1 has higher highs and lower lows, but even the lows are memorable at least, while when I think back to Thief 2 some of the levels blend together in my memory.

Why is Thief so good? Simple: great atmosphere, great exploration, and stealth gameplay that actually functions and isn't just a frustrating exercise in hiding behind objects and hoping you're not in someone's line of sight. I used to hate stealth in games before, but Thief made me fall in love with it. And to this day there's no better stealth system out there. Sure, the AI is exploitable and I've become so familiar with the engine's quirks that I can exploit it as hard as I want, but the raw systems are superior to anything we got today. The lighting, the sound propagation, and how both interact with AI awareness of the player. Simply excellent.

The amazing atmosphere and wealth of top-tier fan missions are just a cherry on top.