As a little aside (or bit of procrastination) from getting back to working on my blog posts after being totally burnt out from a combination of the second Rapid Ideation task, work and prepping for a job interview I thought I’d make a post about some of my favourite games from the distant and not too distant past.
In order to make things a little more interesting, I decided to limit the list of my favourite all-time games to a measly five! Furthermore, these would be games that I would have to take with me on a deserted island* until I presumably rescued.
I based my choices on the following criteria (some of which I may or may not mention in great length):
· Re-playability
· Story and world building
· Atmosphere
· Game length
I believe these are the main factors that have kept me coming back to play the games again and again.
So, without further delay…
Number Five – Burnout Paradise: Ultimate Box (PC)
I’m not a racing fan by any stretch of the imagination and have even less interest in Arcade style racing games, however, Burnout must be one of the best games of any genre I’ve ever played!
Burnout has loads of Re-playability, from the large open world in which to explore and race in, to the gradual upgrading of your Licence(s) and better performance cars through winning different competitions and unlocking even more cars through completing different achievements and beating records – what’s more, you could do all of this with online multiplayer too!
There’s no story as such, but the city you race in is well designed and has some great looking landmarks and feels “lived in” – despite there being no visible pedestrians.
I’m not sure how many hours I’ve put into Burnout Paradise over the years, but it’s definitely in the low hundreds and would be more if the online servers were still working (I’m not counting Burnout: Remastered, as it’s a broken mess of a game).
If you’ve never played it, I’d highly recommend having a look – even with “just” the offline mode. The arcade style car handling and physics might take a little getting used to (they did for me), but once you do, you’ll be hooked!
Number Four - Farcry 5 (PC)
I love the Farcry games (other than Primal, we’ll ignore that), they’re one of my favourite games series over the last 20 odd years and have really enjoyed their (some might say limited) evolution with each instalment.
Up until Farcry 5, I would have said that I enjoyed part 2 the most as I loved the setting and some the ingenuity that it added to the First-Person Genre (FPS) genre at the time – it’s just a shame , they couldn’t get more wildlife into the game.
In a rare first, Farcry 5 is the only game I have not only paid (nearly) full price for , but also a game I’ve bought within weeks of its initial release!
Farcry 5 is unusual in that it takes place in the deep south of the USA, whereas every previous entry has been set in far off and tropical places. The game starts off with the usual story led in game tutorial, which both sets up the plot and gets you accustomed to the controls and gameplay mechanics.
It’s pretty standard but sucks you into story nicely and sets you off on your mission to stop the fanatical doomsday cult known as Eden’s Gate. The in-game world is fantastically realised and feels realistic and lived in – with something random happening if you stand still long enough, like civilians getting kidnapped by the cult or attacked by the local wildlife!
Another aspect I really love with this series, is the freedom you have when working through the story ,you can just play through in linear fashion and following the story and recapturing local outposts or go off on complete tangents creating your own adventures and recruiting random locals to help you with your cause.
I’m currently about halfway through my second playthrough and have put in a good 80 hours over both so far, without unlocking every upgrade or weapon. I would have invested a lot more hours, but the multiplayer co-op refuses to work properly.
It might seem that Farcry 5 is a strange pick for the list, with only one and a half play throughs, but whenever I play, I’m totally drawn in to the story and game world and can easily spend hours just exploring and getting creative when taking out cultists!
Number Three – Jagged Alliance 2 (PC)
I can’t remember how I ever found out about Jagged Alliance 2; I think I may have read a review in a PC ZONE magazine. On first look, it’s a pretty dated (even for the time) looking turn based strategy game, with some ropey graphics and even ropier voice acting! But once (or if) you get passed this, you’re in for one of the most in-depth and rewarding strategy gameplay experiences – well, it was for me anyway!
The plot follows on somewhat from the previous Jagged Alliance and installs the player as a mercenary for hire taking the impossibly difficult job of taking down a military dictatorship in the fictional country of Alruco. The player is given a meagre payment, which they are expected to hire more mercenaries, specialists and equipment to get them started – with other mercenaries being hired on daily, weekly and fortnightly contracts and their cost dependant on their experience and quality.
The story is progressed through liberating local towns, email communications and cut scenes and you’re never able to rest on your laurels, as there are various enemy patrols and invasion forces always waiting to ruin your day.
For me, one of the best things about the game is (again) the complete freedom to do things your own way, be it from who you hire (each merc has their own personality, skills and equipment) and for how long, what equipment you buy and what locations you decide to liberate first. Once liberated, you can get the local miners to mine for you and generate some income to buy more mercs and equipment that you’ll need to progress.
You chose to train a militia (if you or your merc’s leadership is high enough), or leave your mercs to guard the location – which can you leave you short elsewhere or leave your merc without enough support and potentially in real danger of being captured or killed (and gone forever).
It’s a tricky balancing act and one I’ve tried a variety of ways – including buying loads of cheap inexperienced mercs and liberating different towns simultaneously and buying a couple of expensive mercs and sending them in solo on night missions.
That’s the great thing about Jagged Alliance II, have been through multiple playthroughs and still not used all the merc characters and spoken to all of the NCP’s – despite Alruco’s map never changing!
Jagged Alliance is far from a perfect game, but once you get passed its flaws, it draws you in to its rich game world and excellent X-COM style micromanagement, that rewards creative thinking and forward planning and I guarantee you’ll be repeating the different merc phrases to yourself in no time!
Number Two – The Long Dark
The Long Dark is fantastic exploration-survival game that has two modes of play; story and survival and is set in a frozen in an expansive Northern Canadian frozen wilderness in the aftermath of a geomagnetic disaster. Most of my experience comes from playing the survival mode during early access on Steam.
The survival game mode mixes a bleak and foreboding atmosphere with a beautiful, but deadly environment that both rewards and punishes careless exploration in equal measure. The narrative for this game mode is simple; survive! There’s no escape from where you are, there is no one else, you are on your own and just need to keep alive for as long as possible by finding some place of safety and gathering resources.
Sounds simple, but you have to fight hunger, thirst, fatigue with limited resources that degrade with use and time, changing weather conditions which include; freezing winds and blizzards and deadly wildlife like wolves and bears! To top it all, when you die in Survival Mode, your save is deleted! Meaning that every decision is critical.
As I mentioned before, the environment is beautiful and luckily there’s 50 square kilometres of wilderness in search of those oh so precious supplies. Fortunately, you’re not just limited to scavenging for those supplies, you can Hunt, fish, trap and make improvised tools and weapons to keep you going that extra bit longer.
One of the other great things about The Long Dark is that it’s constantly being updated and frequently has special events to add new gameplay twists and fixes, so things are constantly changing and evolving.
If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to live in a winter apocalypse you definitely need to look at The long Dark, even if you haven’t – you still need to! For me, The Long Dark is the perfect sandbox survival game that sucks you into its world with a flawless atmosphere and well thought out interface.
Honourable mentions:
These are some of my all time favourite games, however I couldn't see myself replaying them as much as those on the shortlist and felt that I had to at least acknowledge them.
Killing Time (Panasonic 3DO), Warsong (Sega Megadrive/Genesis), Unreal Tournament (PC), Secret of Monkey Island (Commodore Amiga), Fallout 5 (PC), Portal 2 (PC), James Pond 2: Robocod (Sega Megadrive/Genesis), Warsong (Sega Megadrive/Genesis), Rings of Power (Sega Megadrive/Genesis), Shining Force II (Sega Megadrive/Genesis), Space Hulk: Vengeance of the Blood Angels (Panasonic 3DO), Stardew Valley, Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura (PC), Dying Light (PC), Dishonoured (PC), Deus Ex (PC), Prey (PC)
Number One – System Shock 2
Is System Shock 2 my all-time favourite game? Quite possibly yes, I’ve definitely played through and completed it more times than any other game I’ve owned and played over the last 35 or so years.
What is System Shock II? Well it’s an action role-playing survival horror video game that takes place on board a spaceship in a cyberpunk depiction of 2114. The player takes on the role of a recently awoken cryogenically frozen soldier amid the outbreak of a genetic infection that has devastated the ship.
Like System Shock (which I’m still to play at any great length), the gameplay consists of first-person combat and exploration with role-playing system elements, which allows the player can develop skills and traits, such as combat, hacking and psionic abilities.
So, what makes System Shock 2 so good and the top of my list? Well, it’s not the graphics as they were lacklustre even for 1999. I believe it was made with the Dark Engine, which was used by Thief and Thief 2 and coincidently both had very poor in-game graphics – especially the character models. Luckily, System Shock II is fantastic at everything else it does, so those ugly graphics can be ignored completely.
The atmosphere in this game is awesome! Straight away, you’re thrown in the deep end – awakened from your cryosleep to be told everything is a mess and that the area you are in is about to decompress! As you rush your way through various vents and corridors to escape (encouraged by a surviving member of the ship’s crew), you see another crew member get murdered by what looks to be a mutant with a shotgun… Finally, you get escape through the airlock, in what feels like the nick of time to relax for a minute and get your bearings and then you see the apparition of a dead crew member.
It’s a rapid start that gives the player an insight of the things to come and really sets the scene, whilst showing how to listen to audio logs, read emails and hack control panels. The story is progressed by doing these things to complete tasks set by the voice in your head (the only other crew member known to be alive) and complete puzzles.
Another thing that System Shock does fantastically well, is the perfect balance of RPG and FPS mechanics that lets the player choose from 3 specialised character types with unique skills, weaponry, and psionic (magic) powers.
All the above can be upgraded and improved to affect the way game is played and helps with the overall replayability, allowing the player to try out different weapon and skill combinations. For example; you can acquire the research skill, which will in turn help to study the enemy weak spots meaning that less ammo is used when encountering them. But the player is free not to do this and acquire different skills, such as hacking so they can reprogram the ship’s faulty security turrets to protect them.
System Shock 2’s game length is pretty solid for a game of its type and will quite easily take a good 12 hours on the first playthrough, dropping to about 6 to 8 hours for further replays. I’d agree with anyone that says this could be considered short when compared to games like Skyrim for example. However, such is the constant nerve-wracking atmosphere and detail rich environment (despite the graphic
s), I’d argue anymore would be too much and dilute the overall horror experience.
I’d recommend System Shock 2 to anyone with an interest in games (and frequently have done so), as it offers a rich and engaging experience that has rarely been bettered. It is also a piece of video gaming history that deserves its reputation of being ahead of its time and highly influential in many a first-person game’s design.
So, there it is, my list of the 5 games I’d take to play on a desert island with me. These are the games that I’ve enjoyed playing over the years and am always happy to go back to anytime I’ve got a block of spare time.
As you can see by the honourable mentions list, there are plenty of games that didn’t make the cut, as well as plenty of 8-bit and 16-bit games!
Do you agree with some of my choices?
Which of these do you absolutely disagree with?
What games would make your list?
Let me know below!
*The deserted island would of course have running electricity and selection of video gaming hardware for my cassettes, cartridges, disks and discs to run on.
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