I play for the feels. This is a list of recently played games in rough order of how much I liked them.
This game does everything right for me. The puzzle-like narrative that makes me want to seek out. The soundtrack that catapults me back to the same sense of melancholic wonder. Setting and themes that nerd-sniped me in the first thirty minutes. The opening scene you don't realize until much later. !
Aims an arrow full of pathos and takes a shot at your heart. It's not a sad game but evokes a deep sense of sadness. It makes you sit down and contemplate the mortality of everyone you hold dear. A three-hour long play that stays with you.
There are few games in this list that somehow manage to excel in all aspects; this is one of them. I think what sets this game apart is the reality that is crafted into it. The game has incredible depth but never to the point of being tedious. And this depth is detailed by its music, voice acting, art style, and characters—it builds a world you steep in. Probably one of the few games I'll replay.
Unparalleled freedom that makes you strongly consider being an outlaw in the 1800s. That being said, the vastness of this game is double-edged. When you start, the novelty quotient is incredibly high. You want to interact with everything the game offers. But as the end nears, the vastness grows a bit stale. Nevertheless, it is a game everyone should start—the story, building, depth of interaction, and ending make it one of the best games I've ever played.
I started playing this because I was highly intrigued by its 1 bit dithered art style. It took me a few hours of gameplay to get a hang of the partial knowledge puzzles. After that, the game draws you in deeper, and makes you feel smart for figuring it out. And the story gets increasingly fantastical as you piece it together. An incredibly satisfying game to solve.
A strange juxtaposition of dark and wholesome that works. The character of Sally Face—in some inexplicable manner—resonated with me. Even though the writing felt a bit naive at times, the artwork, , and themes are what I'll remember it for.
This game is from 1998; I played it in 2025 out of curiosity. I thought I'd play for an hour or two and go, "Huh cute, so that's how it was back then" and then forget about it. I was plenty wrong. I still don't get how this game has so much depth and is so much ! Triangle count doesn't matter; this game will forever hold up.
I just need one magnetite for the mod station; should be a quick five-minute trip to the Jellyshroom Cave, then I'll go sleep. That doesn't happen. You instead find enough magnetite to almost finish four other things. So you decide to spend five more minutes finishing those, and this recurses until your initial five minutes have bloomed into five hours. Addictive aspect of survival craft aside, this game too makes you want to seek out. Find things and go deeper, and it you appropriately for doing so.
The metro is a scary place. This is probably the most linear game in this list, but that doesn't take away from the experience. The atmosphere in this and Last Light has a very sepulchral vibe going on. You think the metro is bad, but then you go on top and realize they're cloistered in there for a reason.
My favorite out of the three Metros. It has everything the first game has but in more detail. The story line continues. This, along with the first game, play a pretty solid story.
This is an obviously fantastic game in most aspects—voice acting, story, characters, and gameplay. The only reason it's lower is because the story felt like a prelude, and the primary antagonist didn't feel compelling . From what I've been told, the game is more gratifying if you're the completionist .
The game allows for many ways to get something done, but there are a couple of very obvious ways to do them. So unless you're going out of your way to experiment, you'll find no need for a lot of the . While the gameplay and interactive environment take center stage, I feel the story and setting are deeply compelling and would make the game stand irrespective of the gameplay.
This Metro has the best gameplay out of the three. But, strangely, some aspects of the first two Metros are absent. Because of this, the characteristic charm of a Metro game is lessened. It ends up feeling more like a spin-off than a sequel.
Completing the puzzles this game has is satisfying, but—perhaps cause I didn't pay enough attention—the philosophy and story in it did not click with me. Even then, I found the ending to be quite mind-blowing.
Racing is another genre I , but I try not to indulge cause the need to improve lap times takes over, and then it becomes hard to put down. Same with others that have an aspect of endless betterment—fighting games, Kerbal Space Program, etc. They are a lot of fun, but I could play them forever.
And so, I almost exclusively play single-player games, ones that have a story to tell. Because they end, but their stories remain.