Ranked: Stuff chooses the 20 best games ever

Ranked: Stuff chooses the 20 best games ever

Oops, we did it again: we’ve put together a massive list of our favourite games ever, stretching back decades, in a bid to crown the all-time greatest.

This selection reflects the games that our staff have loved and obsessed over since their youth, as well as a few very recent picks. We expect some of the entries will surprise you: we didn’t always go for the default, obvious choices. But then that would be boring.

Plus, while you might be massively, personally upset that Resident Evil and Street Fighter II and Donkey Kong and tons of others didn’t make the final cut, all we can say is that it’s impossible to please everyone with a list like this.

So without further ado, let’s count them down, starting with #20…

20: PRO EVOLUTION SOCCER 5 (2005)

The best Pro Evo game yet was a real revelation back when it came out, and retains a special place in our hearts more than a decade on.

Unlike the always-enjoyable (but not very lifelike) Sensible Soccer, or the brilliantly observed (but sometimes frustrating) modern FIFA games, PES 5 absolutely nailed the tricky balance between realism and playability.

It offered great graphics for the time, loads of stats and a full-featured Master League if you wanted to immerse yourself in its world, but was also accessible enough that you could just pick it up and take on a mate for a bit of exhilarating end-to-end action.

19: UNCHARTED 2: AMONG THIEVES (2009)

Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End might provide the grandest vision of Naughty Dog’s brilliant action franchise, but Uncharted 2: Among Thieves was a true blockbuster of its time: a dramatic improvement over the original game and packed with the kind of insane set piece moments that could make Hollywood envious.

From the opening scene spent dangling from a train hanging over a cliff to the many, many other memorable moments along the way, Uncharted 2 never let up the thrills. And the series still hasn’t since. Not that this title was only about the action: a great script and some genuinely well-rounded characters underpinned the whole thing, and made it the most film-like game we’d played (until Uncharted 3 arrived).

18: THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: BREATH OF THE WILD (2017)

The Legend of Zelda had a pretty firm formula established – but with open worlds all the range this generation, Nintendo took one stab at a sandbox game and knocked it out of the park.

True, Zelda’s adored dungeon-looting system had to be sacrificed, but when you can explore every snow-covered nook and swamp-bogged cranny of Hyrule, then you’re not exactly getting a raw deal. Like any of Link’s ventures, this is an adventure of epic proportions with the perfect concoction of reminiscent nostalgia and revolutionary innovation.

17: HALO: COMBAT EVOLVED (2001)

Hail to the (Master) Chief. It’s no overstatement to say that Microsoft’s entire console business was built off the back of the green helmeted chap, and has floundered at the onset of his more recent mid-life crisis.

Picking up the sci-fi shooter baton from Half-Life and refining it with mainstream-friendly features such as a regenerating shield and auto-aiming, Halo: Combat Evolved set the modern template for console shooters. Not only did it have a blistering campaign, but the split-screen multiplayer also picked up the baton from GoldenEye 007.

16: BIOSHOCK (2007)

The original BioShock still stands up as one of the most influential games ever made. Set in the underwater dystopia of Rapture, this first-person shooter weaves a masterful tale of power and corruption told through a rabble of uniquely perverted citizens.

Its moral choices will make you feel squeamish, while the visuals and atmosphere are still incredible today. It’s also the kind of game that’ll have you chewing over its ending for days… and not in a disappointed, Mass Effect 3 kind of way.

15: TONY HAWK’S PRO SKATER 2 (2000)

A sports game ranked as one of the best ever? Surely that can’t be… but this is Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 we’re talking about. Almost everyone with a games console in the early noughties lost endless hours skating the various parks and industrial sites.

With extensive skills to master, levels to unlock and secrets to find, it had more depth than a good number of RPGs. And let’s not forget the multiplayer mode, as we’d all invite our friends over for an ultimate face-off to see who was the greatest Tony Hawk wannabe. No, it was never us.

14: MASS EFFECT 2 (2009)

Some of you may prefer other episodes in the huge space opera that is the Mass Effect trilogy, but for us it’s the second game that perfectly hits the right mix of epic gun battles, beautifully realised alien worlds to explore and, of course, beautifully realised people (and aliens) to seduce. Just like in Star Wars – original trilogy, of course – it’s the middle chapter that packs in the most excitement, possibly because it doesn’t get bogged down with setup or attempting a finale and instead can just concentrate on all that gameplay.

13: RED DEAD REDEMPTION (2010)

Rockstar Games will probably always be known for Grand Theft Auto above all – and for good reason (keep reading this list) – but Red Dead Redemption deserves just as much acclaim.

Putting a Wild West spin on the familiar open-world formula, it swaps speedy cars and motorcycles and horses, all while packing in plenty of action and atmosphere along the way. With Red Dead Redemption 2 on the horizon for 2018, it’s possible that this franchise will be just as esteemed as GTA someday, but whether or not that happens, the original will surely remain a classic.

12: FINAL FANTASY VII (1997)

For years, the only story a video game managed was that one about some woman being kidnapped and us having to rescue her. Then Final Fantasy VII came along, with months’ worth of non-stop emotional storytelling and the power to make adults cry. Not us, obviously, but, you know… other people.

Final Fantasy VII used the power of the PSone to modernise and add a huge cinematic edge to the classic Japanese role-playing template. In hindsight, it’s super weird and really uneven, yet still suitably epic and enthralling.

11: SUPER MARIO WORLD (1991)

A perfect platformer from its start to a Bowser-stomping finish, Super Mario World is so good that it took Nintendo almost two decades to stick its mustached icon in another 2D outing for home consoles. Rather than bang on about just how brilliant the portly plumber’s SNES debut was, we’d rather take a moment to remember that without Super Mario World there would be no Yoshi. Can you imagine a world in which the best dinosaur of all-time hadn’t been invented? It truly doesn’t bear thinking about.

10: INSIDE (2016)

This modern indie classic conclusively proves that platformers aren’t dead and buried just yet. Inside puts you in control of a small boy in a dark and harrowing world; solve puzzles and avoid the multiple deadly threats, and you’ll progress towards the story’s ending, which will linger in your mind for years after.

Inside is largely similar to Playdead’s nearly-as-mesmerizing Limbo in approach, but throws in more curveballs and surprises along the way, plus it packs more of a punch as the storyline ultimately unfolds. Yes, it truly deserves to rank this high alongside the all-time greats.

9: MINECRAFT (2011)

Known to the still-unenlightened as “that block building game,” Minecraft has captured the hearts of kids and grown-ups alike by proving every bit as big as their imaginations. It’s LEGO writ as large as you want, and how it took humanity so long to come up with that simple idea remains a total mystery.

What makes it so special? Well its open-ended, open-world design lets you design your own fun with few limits, plunging you back into a time when you were small and had no worries about boring things like going to work and doing the shopping and getting a mortgage. Which is ironic, given that most people spend lots of time in Minecraft building themselves a house then searching for food.

Basically, it’s the kind of game anyone can pick up and play and quickly lose hours to. Just try it.

8: GRAND THEFT AUTO V (2013)

The best-selling game of 2017 so far is four years old. That is how popular Grand Theft Auto V has proven to be since we first saw Trevor curb-stomp a man to death by way of an introduction.

From UFO spotting to bank heists and family bonding, there is so much to do in the sprawling world of Los Santos that its map takes a full six hours to walk across. Or you could just stay put at home gambling your ill-gotten funds on the local property market. Add to this an epic, ever-expanding online multiplayer mode and you’ve got yourself a true modern classic.

7: DOOM (1993)

Such is Doom’s world-conquering prowess that there’s a website dedicated to all the myriad platforms it’ll run on. Apple’s new Touch Bar? Of course. Your local hospital’s ultrasound machine? Not the best use of NHS money, but sure. A toy chainsaw with a Raspberry Pi shoved into it? Nothing could be more appropriate for what is arguably the biggest milestone in PC gaming.

Doom pushed technology to the max with its 3D worlds and super-fast play, also introducing network code for link-up shooting battles. It was amazing. It still is. We’d happily play it today. In fact, we’re going to play it today.

6: PORTAL 2 (2011)

We might get some flak from our dear readers for choosing Portal 2 over the now-iconic original, and in that case, fair enough: Portal was brilliantly inventive, impressively focused, and totally hilarious to boot.

But while the sequel lacked that same kind of singular impact, we’d argue that it was even better. Portal 2 saw Valve take the concept to new levels, packing in all sorts of new puzzle mechanics that all worked incredibly well, plus the new characters were great, the world-building was surprisingly enthralling, and the additional co-op mode was just as fantastic. Seriously, Portal 2: it’s pretty incredible.

5: TETRIS (1984)

Tetris is the very model of simplicity. The computer equivalent of Snap or Draughts, Tetris is now omnipresent on pretty much every hardware format known to man – seriously, there are probably kettles that can play it..

How has Tetris endured to this day? Well, it’s incredibly easy to pick up and understand, yet the building challenge creates such an addictive edge that you can’t help but keep plugging back in and polishing off your high score. The Game Boy version remains the best, but if you don’t own it on your current smartphone, you’re a fool. Great music, too.

4: SUPER MARIO 64 (1996)

Transferring two decades of 2D, side-scrolling platform knowledge into 3D? That might seem a daunting task to any other studio, and sure enough, some characters made missteps (looking at you, Sonic) – but it was a piece of cake to Nintendo, as evidenced by Super Mario 64.

Has there ever been a better system-selling game in history? We think not. Super Mario 64 established the template for 3D platforming much like its predecessors did for 2D, with dazzling worlds, creative challenges, and such an incredible amount of insanely fun things to do. And it’s still a blast to play today, no less.

3: HALF-LIFE 2 (2004)

Half-Life 2 is an astonishing game on every level, from the combat to the puzzles, the writing to the sound, to the original and convincing design of its world. But perhaps best of all was the fact that you could pick up a circular saw blade with the Gravity Gun, shoot it at a zombie’s neck and watch its head pop off like an overripe, brain-filled coconut.

As first-person shooters go, this could remain the greatest for another 10 years. And it could well be that long before we finally get a finale to the story, given Valve’s track record over the last decade.

3: HALF-LIFE 2 (2004)

Still, even if Half-Life 3 never surfaces, we’ll always have our memories – and what memories they are. Has there ever been a spookier, more tense level in any game than Half-Life 2’s Ravenholm? No way. Has there ever been a better weapon than the aforementioned Gravity Gun? Definitely not. Has there ever been a better, more varied cast of adversaries to battle past than the assorted head crabs and antlions and striders and zombies of this game? Not on your nelly.

In short, everything about it is near perfect and if it ever gets a PS4 or Xbox One remaster we’ll be all over it in a shot.

2: THE WITCHER 3: WILD HUNT (2015)

Video games and fantasy are easy bedfellows; we’ve been swinging swords and slaying monsters since we first picked up a gamepad. But The Witcher 3’s brilliantly imagined world has a brooding darkness about it, helped by its twisted look at fairy tales.

It’s a stunning game that’s packed with things to do, without ever falling into that open-world trap of feeling like too much of a grind. Much of that is due to the varied quests on offer: most will see you hacking off heads and battling legions of nasties at some point, sure, but there are so many different enemies and environments that each mission ends up feeling like a completely new experience.

2: THE WITCHER 3: WILD HUNT (2015)

And that’s even without taking into account the incredibly rich story that underpins it all that. Even the shortest of side-quests usually have a tale of sorts behind them, and some of the main missions – the epic Bloody Baron chapter, for instance, which in itself is longer than some whole games – offer incredibly detailed and always interesting backstory and characters. What’s more, unlike a lot of open-world role-players, even the combat is fun and well-thought-out.

Geralt’s monster-hunting quest isn’t just one of the best games of the last decade – it’s an all-time great.

1: THE LAST OF US (2013)

And here we are, finally, with our #1 pick. It feels a bit odd to go for something so recent amidst a slew of formative, all-time classics, but The Last of Us is such an electrifying, atmospheric high point for games that we can safely ignore any concerns about age. And besides, it was the clear winner among the Stuff staff who voted in this – not all of whom are too young to remember the days of Donkey Kong.

Naughty Dog’s epic adventure follows the grizzled Joel and his headstrong young companion Ellie as they attempt to make it across the United States in the wake of a zombie-esque viral uprising. Their father-daughter-esque relationship is both captivating and believable, even surpassing the developer’s impressive work on the Uncharted series, and it points the way towards the game’s overall genius: its story.

1: THE LAST OF US (2013)

This is a heart-pumping tale, one that’s packed with action and excitement, grim realism, and bucketloads of emotion. The kind of thing which, after you finish playing, makes you think ‘They should make a film of this.’ Only to then realise that there’s no need, because this game is better than any film, ever. There, we said it.

It’s absolutely packed with memorable moments (which we shan’t spoil here), and if anyone says they can play it without a little tear in their eye at some points, they’re either lying or a robot. The brilliant presentation and sumptuous graphics obviously help – particularly on the 2014 Remastered version – but ultimately its appeal rests on the perfect combination of story and gameplay.

It won our vote as the best PlayStation game ever made, and for our money, it’s also the very best game ever created for any platform. Do not miss this experience.