The Ten Games That Everyone Should Play

Just as a heads up, this game is rated M for mature audiences, requiring that players are over the age of 17 or have parental permission. Doom very much deserves that rating. All of the other games on this list are rated at max 13+.

Doom is the only single-player shooter game I've ever really enjoyed. I haven't finished it yet, but so far it's been a blast and unlike anything else in the genre. The main appeal of this game is the gratuitous violence and gore, which I'm honestly pretty indifferent on. The reason why I like the game is how its pace compares to other shooter games.

Most shooter games are known for making the players prioritize cover, and taking shots at enemies from safety, minimizing risk. Doom completely throws that out the window, incentivizing constant movement and getting up close and personal with your foes. The clearest example of this is the game's implementation of a "punch button"; a strong melee attack that can defeat enemies much quicker than can be done with weapons. The speed and amount of action the player is given in Doom is completely unrivaled by any other shooter game.

Despite the notoriety the series has for its difficulty, Doom offers a lot of choices on how hard you want the game to be (with difficulties ranging from "I'm too Young to Die" to "Ultra-Nightmare"). The difficulty of the game can also be changed at any time when below "Nightmare". Personally, I've only played on "Hurt Me Plenty", the game's default difficulty, and felt the challenge was moderately low once I got used to it, though I've heard it gets a lot tougher later.

Doom's 2020 sequel, Doom Eternal is generally considered to be better than the original in almost every way, but I couldn't include it on my list because I have yet to play it. Still, I'd ask other sources about which is better if you are interested in playing one of them, or you could play both, as they're not terribly long games. Both Doom games are available on any modern console or PC.

Maybe you're someone who generally isn't very good at video games. But maybe you are good with strategizing and solving problems. If that's the case, then I highly recommend Into the Breach, a turn-based tactics roguelike. To define those genres:

• Turn-based - the game does not play in real time but instead switches between the player and enemy team, with as much time as you want to make your moves

• Tactics - the game places "units" on a gridded map that are moved around to accomplish a goal

• Roguelike - the game is extremely short and infinitely replayable though complete randomization of its stages

Into the Breach requires zero skill or reaction time. Everything in this game is reliant on your ability to strategize in response to the scenarios you are put in. That's nothing new for a turn-based tactics game, but the way in which this is handled in Into the Breach is essentially the perfect implementation of it. 

Each turn begins with various enemies moving and clearly displaying to you what action they will be taking this turn. In addition, all of the actions the playable units you have access to are displayed with the full effect each one will have. You would think this would make the game easy, as you know exactly what you have to do to stop the enemies. Then you realize there are five enemies on the map all attacking something and you only have three playable units. The goal then becomes figuring out how to most efficiently use your limited number of actions to decrease the threat of as many enemies as possible with each.

Every single thing that will happen over the course of the turn is placed flat in front of you, and in order. The game is incredibly well-designed, as you should be able to get out of any situation with any normal squad of units with perfect play, no matter what. Because of these two factors, it means that every mishap that occurs over the course of the game is entirely your fault, directly or indirectly. The only randomness involved is the generation of maps, what bonus items you receive from loot or shops, and what the enemies choose to attack. 

A lot of Into the Breach's replay value comes from the different squads you can select from. There are currently fourteen different sets of three units with incredibly distinct abilities and playstyles (as well as the ability to mix and match units from different squads, which I haven't really used). Some of these include the Hazardous Mechs, who can outdamage any other squad in the game but will very often hurt or even deactivate themselves in the process, and Blitzkrieg, which focuses on lining enemies up for devastating chain attacks. My personal favorite squad is the Flame Behemoths, who set enemies on fire instead of damaging them, causing them to take damage before each action they take for the rest of the mission instead.

Into the Breach isn't easy, but at least on Normal difficulty, it's really not that bad, and I was able to find success even in my first few attempts. Easy mode is a great introduction to the game for people who aren't experienced in tactics games. Then there's Hard mode. Into the Breach on Hard mode changes a person. I've beaten it, but it took me over half a dozen attempts (this was recently, after playing the game for years). Arguably the thing that makes the game the most difficult is the fact that, no matter what difficulty you play on, every action you take is permanent, and to my knowledge, there's no way to take back an action besides constantly editing the game's files (you do get one turn reset per mission, though). It's pretty brutal, but when you flawlessly get yourself out of a tough situation on Hard mode, it's all worth it because it makes you feel like a genius.

Into the Breach is available on all modern consoles, PCs, or mobile devices. On mobile, it requires a Netflix account, but is free with the subscription. If you have a Netflix account and any interest in the game at all, I urge you to give it a try, since there's no harm in it.

 Into the Breach is probably the best designed turn-based tactics game I've ever played, but I think XCOM 2 is my personal favorite. It's definitely a much more flawed game, but I find it to be more enjoyable, so I thought it was only fair to split the title for this genre as I did with shooter games.

XCOM 2 is similar to Into the Breach in a lot of ways. Both have you controlling a small squad of characters on generally short missions, with each unit having a distinct role or playstyle compared to the others in your party. XCOM 2 is unfortunately a lot more bloated than Into the Breach, with a huge amount of things you have to follow at all times, including multiple different resources you have each used for different things, having to create buildings in the correct order to successfully get into the later part of the game, and honestly just doing a pretty mediocre job at teaching someone how to play the game. It's also a lot longer than Into the Breach, spanning 20+ hours, and you can still get a permanent game over on your file (you aren't forced into it though, you can reload save files in XCOM 2). It's definitely not for everyone, and if I'm being honest, it wasn't really clicking for me at first either, but once I started getting into it, I couldn't put it down.

The characters on your team are placed into one of four classes: Sharpshooters, slow but accurate and damaging snipers, Rangers, fast and dodgy units who are good for scouting and have the highest damage output in the game when close, Grenadiers, heavy weapon users with who can carry additional support items into battle and have increased range on said items, and Specialists, who support their allies with various effects. You'll want to take one of each of these classes into each mission when possible, since they all are capable of doing different things and excel in different scenarios. The foes you face are equally distinct, each type having a unique set of abilities you have to counter in the most effective way possible.

While I praised Into the Breach for its lack of surprises and randomness, XCOM 2 is notorious for just how much of the game hinges on luck. People have criticized the game for this, and I agree that it does make the game less strategic. Sometimes you'll have put yourself in a bad place but survive because three of your characters managed to hit shots that had 28% accuracy. Sometimes you'll also end up losing two of your characters because your strategy was great but your star player missed a shot with 99% accuracy. If you complain about this anywhere online, I'd give you a 99 to 1 chance you'll be told the following phrase: "That's XCOM, baby."

That last paragraph might come off as a criticism, but I have to make it very clear that it isn't. The crazy stuff that can happen makes the game far more entertaining from a traditional standpoint. This was one of the main reasons why I put both Into the Breach and XCOM 2 on the list, because both are equally amazing for very different reasons. One of the reasons why XCOM 2's randomness works is because the game is very much designed around it. You are very, very unlikely to lose the entire game due to bad luck. It can cause minor setbacks, but if you just keep pushing forward, you'll be fine. Even if you lose a character, you'll probably have a dozen more ready to fill their spot.

While XCOM 2 allows you to reload saved files normally, it also gives you the option to play in "ironman" mode, claiming it to be "the true XCOM 2 experience". I would personally agree with this statement, at least after your first playthrough. As you probably guessed, this mode makes it so every action you take over the course of the game is permanent. I think it works even better in this game though, due to the psychological aspect of this via the mechanic of perma-death. XCOM 2's characters are incredibly customizable, with the game nudging you to use those features and get you attached to your team. When a character runs out of health in battle, the game makes it clear they are truly gone. You completely lose all of the equipment, investment, and most of all, attachment you had with them, and in an ironman run of the game, there's nothing you can do to reverse the decision you make that got them killed.

None of these things are why I prefer XCOM 2 to Into the Breach. That honor goes to the character pool, where you can create a virtually unlimited amount of characters that can show up on your team during the game. I've filled mine with recreations of various friends, family members, characters from other works, and whatever random creation I came up with on a whim. Having a squad of these characters is incredibly fun and leads to a lot of entertainment, such as my brother, Alex becoming a grenade-chucking demolitionist. It also adds to the loss when someone is killed in action. Speaking of Alex, he did a playthrough of the game where he got many of our family members on his team early-on, including our parents, grandparents, and some other relatives. I was the only one to survive past the first half of the game. I did much better on my current playthrough, only losing 2 characters while nearing the end of the game (one of Alex's friends and Walter White). My current main squad is made up of myself, both of my grandfathers, a family friend, and Wario.

The biggest issue with recommending this game, as I stated before, is how unfriendly it is to new players. If you haven't played a tactics game before, even "Rookie" difficulty is going to be really tough, even though it decreases the strength and number of enemies and includes other mechanics that cheat the game in your favor. The game's normal mode, "Veteran", takes most of those training wheels off. The third difficulty, "Commander", I would describe as "Veteran plus", being very similar to the last difficulty, just a little harder in pretty much every way it can be. Finally, there's "Legend", which greatly increases the strength and number of enemies and makes it so that everything that takes time, such as building facilities and soldiers recovering from wounds, takes twice as long. Every mistake you make on Legend difficulty will set you back a ton, if not straight-up ending your game as far as 20+ hours in. I think I'll stick with Commander, personally, but I have an insane amount of respect for the people who are able to consistently beat the game on Legend-ironman.

XCOM 2 is available on all modern consoles and PCs.

We go from the most complicated out of all the games on this list to what is possibly the easiest to understand. Death Road to Canada is an action game that I would describe as essentially The Oregon Trail but with zombies, dumb humor, and a whole lot of pop culture references.

Death Road to Canada is about assembling a group of up to four people to drive to Canada, fighting zombies and grabbing loot along the way. Like XCOM 2, the best part of this game is the character pool, which arguably works even better here. As much as I like putting this ridiculous characters into a super-serious story, I think I prefer them just messing around and acting idiotic. In addition to custom characters, your party can come across parodies of characters from other games or movies that barely stay on the line of copyright infringement.

The game is a roguelike like Into the Breach, so it's short and each run is completely unique. A normal game of Death Road to Canada lasts 15 in-game days, each containing a phase where you scrounge an area for supplies and another where you choose actions to take in an event that occurs to the party. The looting phase is one of the bigger issues I have with the game, because many of them feel the same and it can start to be pretty repetitive, since the gameplay is very basic (the only things you can do are move, open doors, and use weapons).

The road events are the highlight of the game, due to the hilarity of some of the situations and the fact that most of them allow you to pick which character interacts with them. For example, you have to choose someone to talk to a group of bandits, so you won't want to pick someone irrational or irritable. I picked Alex once, and was successful because, as the game stated, "The bandits found Alex so annoying that they allowed you to pass if you promised he would stop talking." Another time, I was trying to haggle the prices of a weapon salesman, and choose a character I made named Jimbo. He told the seller to "Cool it!" which resulted in the salesman attacking and killing the entire party, ending my run right there. As a tip, make sure to prevent party morale from getting too low, as one person's morale dropping can cause them to leave and potentially steal some of your supplies. If everyone's morale gets too low, the party will be put in a near-impossible siege mission.

Death Road to Canada's sense of humor is very similar to mine, and is likely part of why I like the game so much. The phrase "Cool it!" that I mentioned before comes up a lot, and has a mechanic that it will give a very good result every third time it is used, harming the party in some way otherwise. It also treats the word "dingus" like it's a swear, often censoring it. My personal favorite joke is that when the game is played around Christmas, it starts with an event where the party meets Santa, and one of the options you can choose is to tell him off for no reason. This results in him transforming into the incredibly powerful "Evil Santa" and joining you.

Death Road to Canada is available on all modern consoles, PCs, and mobile devices.

Like XCOM 2, Hylics 2 is a game that isn't for everyone. Except this time, it's not because of the game being fairly complicated and difficult. No, Hylics 2 is just very, very weird. Calling the game surreal would be an understatement, but even those who don't like this game would probably admit that it is one of the most unique games ever made.

Hylics 2 looks as if it was made entirely out of clay, because it is. Everything in this game was made with clay in real life, then scanned into the engine. Even more impressive than that was how small the team of this game was. Into the Breach and Death Road to Canada were made by smaller teams of people, but Hylics 2 was entirely created by a single person, with another composing the game's music.

I think the visuals are stunning. All of the creative shapes and forms taken by the world and its inhabitants make it a treat to just look at the game. The first Hylics game (which isn't quite as good, and not necessary to play before its sequel) was even put in an art museum in Georgia. Unfortunately, if you're looking for a coherent game, I'd find something else. Hylics 2 almost prides itself on its unique naming schemes. This is a game where your party members are named "Somsnosa", "Pongorma", and "Dedusmuln". Every character also talks in the most esoteric way possible while still attempting to give you the information you need. I don't think any other game would contain a villager telling you that "the delusion to prepare the insect drills, or surely culls my beam of tendency."

I'd like to mention the music, which is incredibly unique for a video game. Hylics 2's soundtrack is generally defined as "surf rock", and I've seen the game described as "an interactive album cover".

Obviously, the main appeal of this game is its presentation, but Hylics 2 is so much more. It's not only one of the most enjoyable RPGs I've ever played, it redefines the genre and fixes every single problem I have with standard JRPGs (Japanese-style role-playing games). Instead of being a 40+ hour experience, Hylics 2 condenses itself to a measly 7-8 hours without feeling too rushed. The game is very clear about pointing you where to go, and doesn't have any random enemy encounters that pop up out of nowhere.

My favorite part of the game is its combat system. At face value, it looks extremely basic, using a standard mana system and giving each character only around 10 or so abilities, all but one of which are shared between all characters. However, it works really well by implementing this gameplay with great care and inventiveness. The low number of abilities is made up for by, for possibly the first time in any RPG I've ever played, making nearly all of them viable options, with the characters' unique abilities generally being the best in the entire game. Another reason why the combat is so interesting is because all of the enemies in the game pose some sort of threat and would be prioritized first in any other JRPG. By putting multiple large threats on-screen at once, it makes the player really think about who to prioritize and what the best option would be. The game also incentivizes you to go all-out in every battle, not caring about using up all of your items and mana points, yet still remains difficult due to the sheer strength of the enemies.

Hylics 2 is only available on PC, via Steam or itch.io.

Out of every game I have ever played, I think Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze is the only one where after playing it for the first time, I was genuinely in a state of awe over the fact that a video game could be this good. This isn't just the best 2D platformer ever made, it's the best by a landslide, and if I think there was just one game on this list that everyone needs to experience, I think this is the one.

Controls and physics are very important for my enjoyment of a platformer, and Tropical Freeze excels in those, with the game feeling incredibly responsive. Donkey Kong is controlled at all times, and you'll generally have access to one of three helper characters that impact the way you move around. Diddy Kong, for example will allow you to hover for a second during each jump, and Cranky Kong allows you to fall on and bounce off of spiked obstacles.

The main reason why this game is so much better than everything else in the genre is the levels. All of them follow a set formula: they introduce a few new ideas, develop them, and bring everything together at the end for one final challenge to test what the player's learned. What makes Tropical Freeze special is the amount of creativity and the dedication to theming each of them has. The whole game takes place on an tropical island that has been frozen over by the game's villain, with each world taking place in a different area of said island (for example: World 1 is the jungle, World 4 is the ocean, and World 6 is the cliffs.)

If I were to pinpoint a single thing that stood out to me in Tropical Freeze, it would be the creativity of the mechanics featured in the game's levels. You'll be riding on an explosive rocket barrel, fighting a giant robot operated by an evil penguin, maneuvering through a giant fruit factory with a river of juice, and dodging debris from a building collapsing around you. By the way, that wasn't a list of some stuff featured throughout the game; all of the things I just listed occur in a single level of Tropical Freeze, and all 63 of them are like that.

The presentation is also top-notch. Every level looks incredibly distinct from the last while still keeping to the world's theme. The background is also surprisingly active. The World 2 level "Rodent Ruckus" starts by showing a bunch of giant rats working in a cheese mine, and both the rats and cheese become elements of the level by the end, and throughout the level the rats are seen reacting to the things you do. Even better than that is the music, which might just be my favorite soundtrack in any video game. "Windmill Hills" and "Busted Bayou" in particular are songs I frequently listen to in my free time.

The only complaint I have for Tropical Freeze is that the final boss isn't that great. It's not bad, but not good either. That's it. Otherwise, this is a completely flawless masterpiece, and possibly the only video game this close to that title. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze is available on Wii U and Nintendo Switch, with the latter version including an easy mode, which is helpful, since the game cane get pretty tough, albeit not at all unfair.

All of what I just listed is great but it turns out it actually doesn't matter because you can play as Donkey Kong in this game which automatically makes it the best game ever made.

I had to end the list with my personal favorite game of all time, Super Mario Galaxy 2. I admit part of that is due to my personal biases, as I've been playing this game since I was five or six, but I think this would still be my favorite 3D platformer even if I played it for the first time recently. Or maybe not, I'm not sure how much my bias towards this game has warped my perception of it. This not my favorite game because it's nearly flawless, or because the gameplay is the best in any game, or because it has a deep, emotional story. No, it's my favorite because from the time I start it to when I turn off the console, I constantly have a smile on my face.

Super Mario Galaxy asked the question: what if you put Mario in space? Galaxy 2 followed it up by experimenting with what you could do with Mario in space. This game has some of the most memorable levels in any game I've ever played, including but not limited to, a mountain range where you create and destroy clouds, an anti-gravity aquatic cavern, a level where everything around you is giant, an electric cosmic tower, and a dungeon where gravity flips every few seconds. While I don't think the level design is as strong as Tropical Freeze's, I still don't think there's a single bad stage in Galaxy 2, at least if you're just playing the game normally and not trying to get all the collectibles.

Oddly enough, despite this game being the one on the list I have played the most and have the most personal history with, I'm really struggling to find anything else to say about it. It controls great, has amazing visuals and music, and has so many creative concepts. Other than that, I don't know what else to say. I guess Galaxy 2 is a pretty simple game overall, and very easy to pinpoint exactly what it is that I enjoy so much about it. It's just the most fun I've ever had playing a video game.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 is available on Wii or Wii U.