Generally, any top rated game from that period which doesn’t rely on “realistic” graphics but instead offers very good gameplay and is kind of timeless and ages well. For example, you shouldn’t play the original System Shock 1 anymore, although it was top tier in 1994, because its graphics are very poor for today’s standards, it’s UI has always been poor, and it’s a game that fully relies on immersion, but you can’t immerse yourself anymore if both graphics and UI are really poor. Instead, play the System Shock remake from Nightdive Studios which came out recently. It’s not the same, but it’s very similar, and much better nowadays. Also why you shouldn’t play the old STALKERs anymore, although they were amazing and it kind of saddens me to write this, but they really don’t offer much immersion today, which is why they didn’t age well. I’m writing this because I didn’t finish part 3 back in the day and intended to finish it like 2 years ago, but I couldn’t stand the dated graphics anymore. For a game which relies fully on immersion, that ruins it.
Here’s my list (not in a particular order), I’m focusing on PC games because I never really play that much console or handheld stuff:
- Command and Conquer up until Red Alert (remastered version available). These are classic RTS games in a sci-fi war setting. Some say Total Annihilation was the best RTS during the 90s but I never played it.
- Starcraft 1 (remastered version available). This game is also still being played competitively in multiplayer, with an active tournament scene, especially in South Korea. Also great in single player. Famous for its balance, at least on modern tournament maps.
- Age of Empires 2 (remastered version available). It’s like a mix between a classic RTS and Civilization. Great game, lots of content by itself already, also tons of added content.
- Jagged Alliance 2 (great community mods available). You can skip part 1, part 2 was absolutely amazing. A great strategy and tactics based game. It’s quite difficult, but great.
- Doom 1+2 (remastered version available, very recently updated again on Steam (this month!)). Plenty of 3rd party engines like gzdoom also available which make them look and feel much more modern. Tons of community-made content as well. Special mention: John Romero, one of the original level designers, also made more content over the years (e.g. “Sigil”), which is great as well.
- Quake 1+2 (remastered version and 3rd party engines available). These were among the first games fully utilizing 3D-accelerated graphics back in the day, so they pushed boundaries and they brought the pseudo-3D games like Doom 1+2 into a full 3D environment.
- Baldur’s Gate 1+2 + its expansions (remastered version available). Also highly recommend version 3 of course but that’s not an old game. Plenty of mods available for them as well. These are all exceptional RPG games with great story and depth that no RPG fan should skip. They also age well because it’s just good 2D art.
- Planescape: Torment (only if you a) liked Baldur’s Gate and b) don’t mind reading (it’s a lot of text) and enjoying a complex story with complex character interactions. Remastered version available)
- Half-Life 1+2 (instead of HL1, play “Black Mesa” which is a great modern remake (not the same, but very similar and much better nowadays). For HL2, there are also some remastered versions or mods available, and Valve updated the game engine from time to time so when you download it today, it’s not the dated version from 2004 anymore). HL1 (1998) was one of the first FPS with a really great story line, voice acting, and stuff like that, which is why it pushed boundaries back when it was released. HL2 was just excellent overall and one of the first or the first game which introduced physics-based object manipulations, so it again pushed boundaries further)
- Sin Gold was a great FPS from 1998 that got brutally overshadowed by Half-Life 1, but it’s still a great story-based shooter, more action-focused. Based on an updated Quake 1 engine.
- Portal 1+2. Best to play them after you’ve played the Half-Lifes. Portal 2 (2012) is THE highest rated game on Steam (https://steamdb.info/stats/gameratings/). Truly great puzzle FPS set in Half-Life’s setting, which is why it’s useful to know about HL before jumping in (but not a requirement). Portal 1 also isn’t far off in rating. Portal 1 was basically a “side game” for the Valve game compilation named The Orange Box, Portal 2 was then a true AAA quality followup because Portal 1 was a huge success.
- Deus Ex 1 (maybe. Graphics are really poor (they were already dated when it launched). But it was one of the first RPG-FPS with stellar level design and the freedom to approach every situation in different ways, so VERY good on the gameplay side). Deus Ex 2 is supposedly bad, so skip that. The newer ones like Human Revolution and Mankind Divided are decent but they’re not classics anymore they’re still “”“fairly recent”“”, around 2010 or so.
- System Shock 2. It also looks very dated by now but there are some HQ mods available (improving models and textures) which make it more bearable. I’m hesitant to mention it because it relies a lot on immersion and it looks very dated. So according to my own recommendations, I probably shouldn’t list it, but it’s also great in level design and gameplay, and its art style never was ultra-realistic to begin with, so I’ll list this one as an exception. It’s very much worth playing, truly a great sci-fi/horror RPG-FPS and a worthy successor to part 1. Nightdive Studios might be working on an SS2 Remake or Remaster, if so then I’d say wait for that!
- Monkey Island 1 + 2. Remasters available. Classic point-and-click adventures, timeless.
- There are even more great adventure games from LucasArts or Sierra back in the day, but you’ll have to figure them out for yourself. I will only recommend Monkey Island because they were probably the most successful and well-known ones. For some of them, remasters are available, or you can play them using ScummVM. There were also other great adventures not from LucasArts or Sierra, like Simon the Sorcerer. The 80s, 90s and early 2000s spawned a lot of great point+click adventure games.
- Diablo 2 (remaster available). D1 started the whole “genre” of hack&slay action RPGs but it’s rather poor in comparison and aged terribly, D2 is much better in all areas, so skip D1 and instead try D2.
- Z (very unique and fun RTS game from the 90s. If you haven’t played it, you should! It offers very good and unique gameplay that no one else really tried to copy as far as I know, which is a shame. It truly emphasizes unit production time, speed and good timing). It’s also entertaining. And difficult.
- Thief Gold + Thief 2 (remasters available I think, but even if not, despite the graphics being very dated, a lot of it is in shadows anyway and IMHO the general art style kind of ages well, though that may be subjective, and it’s also immersion-based, so YMMV, but I think it’s fine still). Also “The Dark Mod” as a community “continuation” of the series). If you like stealth FPS, you must play them. Thief 3 is also decent. Any Thiefs after that are terrible. There are amazing community-made mods/missions as well.
- Alien: Isolation. This one is from 2012 I believe, so not quite old, but an honorable mention because it’s also an amazing stealth-based game. Its art style (like the first movies) also makes it age better. In fact I’d say this is one of the best horror-based stealth games ever made.
- Heroes of Might & Magic 3 (I think in this case, the remaster is bad. Stick to community mods/patches). This one is still the best of the series, so you don’t need to play any other part. Ages very well because it has very beautiful 2D-based graphics. Great art and design overall.
- There was one old RPG which supposedly aged very well but I didn’t play it yet. Maybe Albion or Lands of Lore, not sure what it was.
- Tomb Raider 1-3 (remaster)
- WH40k Dawn of War 1 is great if you like the universe and RTS games in general. Also the best in the series.
- XIII (Thirteen) - but not the new remake, play the original. It’s a rather unique stealth-based, comic-look based FPS. Ages quite well because of its unique look (utilizes the kind of shading like Borderlands)
- Elder Scrolls 3-5 are very good as well but you need several mods or engine enhancements, otherwise graphics aren’t that good anymore, and these are games which rely on good graphics as well for atmosphere/immersion. So they don’t age well by default, but thankfully they have a VERY active modding community which keeps these games alive. You can even make them look very modern, but it takes time and effort to do so.
- Nethack (somewhat of a nerd game, terrible graphics by design (text-based art style), but amazing and very deep/complex gameplay, very rewarding to get into, if you don’t mind its presentation. In terms of gameplay depth it brutally outclasses most games on the market). There are also some other clones like Slash’Em which I didn’t play. Dwarf Fortress is probably similar in depth and presentation (but very different in gameplay and general type of game) but I also didn’t play it yet. If you know enough about Nethack it’s also not that hard, but getting to that point is very difficult and if you don’t know anything then it’s very difficult. (I’ve done 8 ascensions, i.e. 8 finished playthroughs).
- Honorable mention because it’s technically not old but looks old: Return of the Obra Dinn. Don’t skip this one, it’s one of the best games I’ve ever played, I’m not kidding. It’s truly amazing, and it’s made by 1 guy. It’s a perfect example of why graphics fidelity in games doesn’t matter that much and you can create excellent, modern-feeling, stylish games regardless.
Check out the STALKER GAMMA mod, I’ve played it and it’s great! (from a long time STALKER fan)
This is a great list.
I agree with your points on System Shock 2, I would also highlight that you could wait for the enhanced edition that Nightdive are doing of System Shock 2, and you could play their remake of the original in the mean time.
Return of the Obra Dinn. Don’t skip this one
just passing by to second that one. seriously, play this game.
Morrowind is hands down the best elder scrolls. If you want a TRUE sandbox where you can do whatever the hell you want, that’s your game. Some issues include graphics, no quest markers (you have to read the quests and follow directions), the leveling system is not intuitive at all, and combat is heavily stats based.
Upsides are you can craft any spell or enchanted item using any spell effects you know. Ring of permanent invisibility. Spell of lock every door within 50 feet. Summon 3 different daedra at once. Conjure a whole set of bound armor. Explode yourself in fire. Literally anything.
The elder scrolls renewal project is working on recreating morrowind with skyrims engine and I really hope it comes out soon.
OpenMW replaces the engine with an open source one. Runs better on modern hardware, easily moddable, has multiplayer.
Most good platformers from the 80s and 90s still hold up: Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic 3, Sonic & Knuckles, the Donkey Kong Country Games…
The Atari 2600 was before my time, but I bought one at a flea market when I was a kid and was actually impressed by how fun a lot of those games were: Laser Blast, Outlaw, Warlords, and Missile Command, to name a few. The problem is that the hardware is pretty important to the experience. The responsivemess (or lack thereof) of those old controllers is part of the design, so I’m not sure they’d emulate well.
Once you get into the early 3D era, it’s hard for me to say what’s actually good and what’s nostalgia. I love Goldeneye, and it revolutionized the FPS, but it’s probably a pretty bad experience if you didn’t grow up on it. I’m pretty sure Mario 64 is still a legitimately good; it seems like it was still well received on the Switch, and it’s core mechanics have remained basically the same through Sunshine, the Galaxy games, and Odyssey. I think Legend of Zelda: OoT is still legitimately good, but it’s hard to tell. I certainly still enjoy playing it, and it think it’s worthwhile just to see the origins of Z-Targeting, but I’m sure it does feel dated. Either way, you should play the N64 version of Majora’s Mask for sure. It’s still the strangest, darkest Zelda game, and the 3DS version was shit.
Finally, most turn-based RPGs are going to hold up, but I want to make special mention of Pokémon Gold, Silver, and (especially) Crystal. It’s become trendy in the last few years to say these games are actually bad because of a bad level curve, a bad post game, and some other assorted complaints. The level curve criticism is fair, but the post game is great, and most of the other issues are just people who are upset it didn’t follow some of the conventions set by later games. I could say a lot about it, especially if I got into it’s connectivity with RBY, Stadium, and Stadium 2, but I’ll just say it’s still one of the highlights of the franchise, and a contender for greatest sequel of all time. Every fan of the Pokémon should play Crystal at least once.
Xenogears - My favorite RPG, a little rough in the later acts because of publisher shenanigans, but the story is still good and the gameplay, other than turn based being uncommon now still holds up. (Nier Automata is one of the few more recent games that taps on some of the feelings and concepts Xenogears has in spades)
Worms Armageddon - Less common suggestion, but a fantastically fun game to play with multiple people, even with one controller, since you can pass it around by turn.
Quake 1 - despite my two turn based suggestions FPS is my favorite genre. Quake 1 blends things like lovecraftian and body horror into the environment. And the re-release Bethesda has done is really well done.
Doom 1 + 2 - just for the history lesson. Also has a re-release now that makes it much more playable. Still fun too.
Planescape Torment - You’ll want to be a particular person for this one. I don’t have the patience for isometric rpgs like this one, but the story is great.
Diablo 2 - Pinnacle of isometric action RPG. Wasn’t my cup of tea but if you like the genre, it’ll be a winner.
Day of the Tentacle - point and click adventure, but fun and not quite as obtuse as a lot of them. Will make you think still and the evil tentacle is funny imo. Remaster available on steam too.
Freddy Pharkis Frontier Pharmacist - Another point and click, this one is a selfish add, I mostly add it because I played it a lot and liked it. It may not be the pinnacle of anything, but I found it fun.
Half-Life 1 and 2 - fantastic and fun both. They tap into some things that other FPS still today can’t touch. Really fantastic games.
Vagrant Story - It’s hard. It won’t hold your hand. But it is a good story and interesting leveling/armor/weapon system.
Solstice - NES wizard game. It’s a fun and somewhat difficult dungeon crawler/platformer.
Sonic 1,2,3 - Classics.
Chrono Trigger - Classic RPG
Final Fantasy 6 and 7 - Classic RPGs
Age of Empires / Age of Mythology - Great Real-Time Strategy
Thief - The original games have some clunk to them but they are still fun.
Descent - Probably my favorite 6DOF game.
Heroes of Might and Magic 3 - probably the best of the Heroes games. Good fun turn based adventure game.
The Incredible Machine - A puzzle game where you figure out logical components, I played the Incredible Toon Machine a lot as a kid which is a cartoonish version.
System Shock - Another classic game. I haven’t actually played the original, but am playing the remake. You cN look at both and decide what you’d prefer.
Lemmings - another unique puzzle game. Save the lemmings from themselves, they will walk to their doom.
Yakuza - The series is great and I’d recommend the remakes over the original. Starting on zero isn’t required (It’s a newer prequel) but it’s a good start. The games are all similar in play, so take breaks between them. And the best parts are all the side stories. Seriously, all the fun is there imo. Main story is fun but side stories are more of a draw to me and generally hilarious.
Elder Scrolls III - New TES games are still fun, but they lost a lot of the soul the series had and it gets worse every time. Still fun for what they are, but Morrowind was a unique gem. Fair warning though, it does have it’s rough edges.
A few newer ones because I can’t tell where to cut things off lol:
STALKER - FPS, a bit buggy, but really excellent game. Especially with difficulty mods added. Blends in spookiness, the feeling of being alone, and fun action. Part 2 is set to drop within the next year or so. The invasion of Ukraine has made dev difficult and slower.
FEAR - FPS, this first game is still good fun, the sequels aren’t worth the piss I would take on them.
Mirror’s Edge - The first one is fantastic, just don’t focus on fighting (you’re a runner not a fighter). The first and best First Person Runner game. I replayed it not long ago and still loved it.
Portal - Unique, fun, funny.
Metro 2033 - start of an excellent series. Loved the games, and then the books.
OK I should stop. In general I would suggest playing the remastered versions of any of these games. Many of the originals are victims of their times and did they best they could with what they had while defining what made a game good. The older the game the more likelihood you’ll run into immersion breaking or game ruining designs. We had to tolerate that to find the gems in the rough. You don’t have to do that.
Age of Empires and Age of Mythology should be RTS games instead of turn based like Civilization
Yeah, just mistyped
FEAR is still to this day, a well done game. Very enjoyable and still tough
Trepang2 is it’s spiritual sucessor
Xenogears is one of my all time favorites.
I grew up playing BG1 and 2 and have replayed them as an adult. However, I just can’t get into planescape for some reason.
Yeah planescape wasn’t for me either. I’ve tried to do it a few times and I always put it down shortly into it.
I need more people to know xenogears. Would love to see a proper remaster of it.
This will probably get buried but I got a few of em for ya.
Syndicate Wars: Game was mind blowing for the time it was released.
Black and White 1/2: I know, more Peter Molyneaux. Everything else has been mentioned.
Jade Cocoon 1: Not 2. One was extremely unique and you won’t find another game like it. It’s the coolest monster merging game I’ve seen and has an endless dungeon.
Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup: It’s old but not old. Went open source and has been developed over some time by the community. It’s much more newbie friendly these days.
Warlords Battlecry 3: Holy cow the races, persistent hero progression in an RTS. It’s age shows though.
That’s all I can pull of the top of my head right now that I haven’t seen mentioned, though I didn’t skim every single comment.
Edit: Just remembered Tyrian existed. Oldschool Schmup that had a good SP campaign and multiplayer.
Mmm syndicate wars.
Is Black and White still in copyright hell?
Seems like it.
Shadow of the Colossus
Serious Sam first encounter
Warcraft 3
Starcraft 1/2
Medieval 2 Total War
Chrono Trigger
Commander keen
That game was hard AF.
Yes, but it was shareware gold to young me.
I’ll recommend games to younger gamers but the graphics look like shit compared to today’s games.
Unreal
Unreal Tournament (if you can find others to play with you)
Duke Nukem 3D
Sid Meyer’s Civilization (the original one put out by Microprose. No addons. Just one complete game.)
Doom
Quake
Might & Magic (yes there is no “Heroes” in the title)
Baldur’s Gate (The very first one)
King’s Quest
Simon the Sorcerer
MDK (Murder Death Kill)
Orcs vs Humans (when Blizzard were not a corrupt asshole of a company)
MDK was hilarious and a great game too. I have played it recently and thought it still held up pretty well!
Rollercoaster Tycoon. Super chill game, you just manage amusement parks and build rollercoasters. Openrct2 is an updated engine for it, which supports modern high resolution screens, but requires a copy of the game for the art assets.
Thanks to the community, you can download all of the RCT1, 2, and expansion campaigns in RCT3
Master of Magic Heroes of Might and Magic 3 Deus Ex Tyrian 2000 Postal 2 UT2004Deus Ex is amazing, if you can get passed the aged graphics, it’s a masterclass in storytelling and game design.
This is what I played as a teenager that still hold up in my eye.
X-wing alliance
Age of Mythology
Strongholds Crusaders
Rise of Nations
Midtown madness
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters
Diablo
Starcraft and Broodwar
Super Street fighter II turbo
Super Mario World
Kirby All star
Heroes of might and magic 3
Age of Wonders
There are entire genres that I think in many ways have passed younger gamers by.
Point and click adventures were the biggest thing in the world at one point. The classics are the Lucas Arts entries, like Indiana Jones and The Fate of Atlantis, The Dig (both based on unused Spielberg pitches), the Monkey Island games, Full Throttle, Day of The Tentacle and Loom. You’ve also got Myst and Riven (Riven being the far superior of the two), and my personal favourite, The Longest Journey, which has an absolutely stellar story and really compelling protagonist with a lot of depth to her. Also, positive queer representation in a nineties game, holy shit.
The next lost nineties genre is the space sim. The kings of the genre were Wing Commander and X-Wing/Tie Fighter. Then you’ve got Privateer and later Freelancer. For the Wing Commander games read a summary of 1 and 2, then jump in with 3, the first to feature FMV with Mark Hamill as the player character (genuinely an excellent performance too, he took the role really seriously and saw it as every bit as important a scifi property as Star Wars). John Rhys Davies (Gimli) and Malcolm McDowell also make appearances.
And of course, the classic nineties FPS, a genre that feels very, very different from modern FPS games, though there have been some good attempts to recreate it. You know Doom, and Wolfenstein 3D (the latter does not hold up; the former absolutely does), but also check out Heretic, Hexen, Rise of The Triad, and most importantly, IMO, the Marathon games. These were the precedessors of the Halo series, and they combined really solid action with a genuinely amazing story. It’s the kind of big, high concept that you rarely get in movies, TV shows and games, with a world that the writers clearly put a tonne of thought into, and some characters who will stick with you long after the game is over.
Finally, some stuff that doesn’t really fit any of the above. Crusader: No Remorse and Crusader: No Regret are isometric action shooters with some fun storytelling and LOTS of explosions. If you get them on GOG be sure to download and read all the supplementary material, it really fleshes out the world and the characters. System Shock probably doesn’t even need mentioning with the recent remake, but the originals truly hold up, especially with the UI and controls polish Nightdive added. Syndicate and Syndicate Wars are very hard to explain, but they’re really fun (That said, I’ll give an even stronger recommendation to their modern spiritual successor, Satellite Reign, which deepened the gameplay significantly while still retaining all of the spirit).
There’s plenty more, obviously, but that’s what immediately comes to mind as worth checking out.
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Tron 2.0 - A FPS game set inside computers from the early 2000s. There were a lot of great weapons in the game but I always went back with the Disc throwing weapon.
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Homeworld 1/2/Cataclysm- An 3D space RTS series 1999/2000s. During the campaign all units made carry through to the next mission.
Homeworld is fantastic. I heard the new one sucks though and that really bums me out :(
I hear some of the online modes are awesome but the story was a bust. I was looking forward to a good old Homeworld story but I heard enough to know not to buy it.
It’s also one of those games that end up as discord competitive games, like a lot of fighting games. You kinda need to play against people who are really into RTS if you’re gonna play it online a few months after release.
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Not that old, but Prince of Persia: Warrior Within (2004).
I have not played that many games, but I have yet to find such an amazing action adventure combat mechanics.
There is a trailer on Youtube that does the system justice - everything can be done in-game, at your will, and it’s not even that hard. Context matters, and it’s so rewarding chaining different combos to plow through them like butter.
Those basic enemies are meant to be fucked up in every possible way, the environments often provide ample varieties of opportunities.
Then there are stronger enemies and bosses, which don’t let you mop them around, so you have to fight them face to face.
The game itself is decent, there are some bad platforming parts, but thanks to time rewind they can be beaten.
The biggest issue is very low native resolution, and the game kept crashing on my Steam Deck. I will try it again, because I want to relive that combat again.
All three Prince of Persia games in this trilogy: The Sands of Time, Warrior Within, and The Two Thrones are some of my fondest memories with my original Xbox. Amazing games and I finished all three, but I’ve never been able to get into another PoP title since.
edit: a word
I installed Two Thrones, saw the speed kill, instantly removed the game.
Was it comparable to WW?
If Little Big Planet for the PS3 and PS4 ever get a proper sequel or remaster, or the Restitched developers ever actually put out that spiritual successor it would be a no-brainer. It was a magical game series for me that was not only very fun to play but also inspired creative and logical thinking with the intricate community level maker tools built into the game. Especially LBP2 with its logic gate and microchip implementations. When I took real engineering classes I was familiar with many high level concepts just because I screwed around with them in a video game as a child. Crazy.
It was also a very cute and well done aesthetic. The gorgeous background enviroments and the little sack boy character you play as. The vibrant collection of music. It was very unique.
