Discussion What are the best 5 single-player games of all time?

Ferdinand

Ferdinand

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I've had the opportunity of playing lots of single-player games and one of the reason I liked most of them is that it removes the pressure of finishing the game within a set time limit.

If I am asked to pick my best top 5 of such game over time, they will be like the list below in no particular order:

  1. Red Dead Redemption 2
  2. Mass Effect 2
  3. SOMA
  4. Final Fantasy 9
  5. Ocarina of Time
These 5 games were the ones that gave me that complete feeling of enjoying a game. Good story, engaging gameplay and quality graphics. Which games do you see making your list?
 
Ferdinand said:
I've had the opportunity of playing lots of single-player games and one of the reason I liked most of them is that it removes the pressure of finishing the game within a set time limit.

If I am asked to pick my best top 5 of such game over time, they will be like the list below in no particular order

  1. Red Dead Redemption 2
  2. Mass Effect 2
  3. SOMA
  4. Final Fantasy 9
  5. Ocarina of Time
These 5 games were the ones that gave me that complete feeling of enjoying a game. Good story, engaging gameplay and quality graphics. Which games do you see making your list?
Click to expand...
That’s a great list... really hard to argue with any of those.

If I had to throw in mine, no real order:
  • The Witcher 3
  • The Last of Us Part II
  • Elden Ring
  • God of War (2018)
  • BioShock

Same vibe as yours really—strong stories, memorable worlds, and games you can just take your time with.

Mass Effect 2 and Ocarina of Time are especially solid picks though. What puts those over the top for you?
 
Hard to pick just 5 but off the top of my head: Red Dead 2, The Witcher 3, Dark Souls 3, Disco Elysium, and Half-Life 2. Those are games I'd replay any day. What gets me with single player is the storytelling — multiplayer will never replicate that.
 
Solid list from Jake there. I'd swap Dark Souls 3 for Subnautica -- that game got me way harder than I expected. The isolation of it is something else. RDR2 and Witcher 3 are no-brainers, reckon they'd be on most people's list.
 
I'd push back slightly on Half-Life 2 as a definitive all-time pick -- it's an extraordinary technical achievement for its era but the writing is quite thin. Planescape: Torment, Morrowind, Gothic II, Baldur's Gate 2 -- these are the games that actually had something to say. That said, Disco Elysium is a genuinely excellent choice and demonstrates what the medium can achieve when it's taken seriously as an art form.
 
Corey said:
Solid list from Jake there. I'd swap Dark Souls 3 for Subnautica -- that game got me way harder than I expected. The isolation of it is something else. RDR2 and Witcher 3 are no-brainers, reckon they'd be on most people's list.
Click to expand...

It's rare to see anyone who likes open world games say they don't feel any love for rdr2. It is right up there as one of the best games that was ever made in that genre. Should be in most list for sure.
 
Oliver's point about HL2's writing is fair but I think that's kind of missing what HL2 actually is. It's not trying to be Planescape -- it's a 10-hour roller coaster with no loading screens and physics that still slaps 20 years later. Different goals entirely.

My list would have Sekiro on it without question. Nothing else has that feel when the combat finally clicks. And Doom Eternal -- the movement and combat loop is just flat-out perfect. Both of them are slept on in these conversations.
 
The single-player games I keep returning to are almost entirely strategy -- Crusader Kings 3, RimWorld, occasionally Dwarf Fortress if I have the patience for it. I would argue RimWorld belongs in any serious conversation about single-player design. The emergent storytelling it generates is more interesting than what most narrative games manage with actual writers and a budget.

That said, Oliver's point about Morrowind is well made. The sense of genuine exploration there is hard to find in anything released in the last ten years.
 
Witcher 3 has to be in there. Spent close to 200 hours on it and still came out thinking I could've kept going. Elden Ring is the other obvious one -- easier to bounce off, but if it clicks it really clicks.

Closing shift tonight so keeping it brief, but yeah, those two are hard to argue with.
 
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