9 Games You Must Try at Least Once in Your Life

By xsisted78 | December 15, 2022

Are you suffering from a serious case of games backlog, like lots of other gamers all around the world? Let’s face it, there are so many gaming platforms around now, so many subscription services, so many quality games to play, and so many game reviews to read, that pretty much all of us are nursing a sizable gaming backlog list. And it’s not going to slow down anytime soon, I have to tell you!

The point is, figuring out what games you should play in this certifiable game glut is no easy task, but we’re here to help you navigate your way through by focusing on nine games that you really need to push to the front of your games-to-play queue. These are the ones that you really don’t want to miss. The others can wait!

Diablo II

The original Diablo was already an amazing game, but the sequel was even grander and ended up being one of the most iconic games of its generation. “But is it better than Diablo II” was for a time a default response to any game that tried to apply the same core ideas. Titan Quest? What about Diablo II? Sacred? But what about DIABLO II?!!

Despite its age, D2 remains incredibly entertaining, and about as hard on your nerves as you want it to be. Despite Diablo III doing fairly well and even launching a new character not too long ago, it’s Diablo II that remains a quintessential hack’n’slash game.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

The story of Geralt of Rivia, the Witcher 3’s professional monster slayer hero, has won many awards and created new markets for the books that Geralt originally hails from, written by Andrzej Sapkowski.

The story is emotional, and often very amusing, and the game world is full of life. Despite the very bleak and grim events unfolding throughout the game, the places you get to visit are vibrant, as if all the colors drained from other games came to find their home here. Let me tell you, few vistas in gaming are as captivating as watching the sunset over the picturesque rolling hills of Beauclair.

You can always set the gameplay to easy if you’re not interested in some of the tougher challenges that the higher levels offer. Playing simply to enjoy the unfolding storyline is certainly a valid option, and rewarding as well. Open-world, story-driven, action-RPGs don’t get much better than this.

Civilization

What is Civilization? The title is a misnomer. It’s actually an immersive sim about pest control! All jokes aside, Civ is a turn-based game about taking a chosen culture from its birth to the dawn of the space age across thousands of years of growth, conquest, and development.

Civilization is a series that’s been a part of the gaming culture for the past 31 years, with the first installment launching way back in 1991. Now the core series is up to number 6, with seven spin-off games for extra fun. It’s truly a Methuselah of a franchise, and for that alone well worth checking out, along with the captivating presentation and gameplay, of course!

The Original Pokémon

Pokémon is a cartoon and game series all about collecting fantastical creatures, training them to unlock more powerful abilities (and raise stats), and finally pitting them against other trainers’ Pokémon.

The further into the series we go, the more hidden and overt stats we can find, and enough numbers for people to run complex Excel tables to maximize their pokémon’s effectiveness. It’s certainly worth giving it a shot to find out what all the fuss is about!

Minecraft

Minecraft put, well, crafting, in the spotlight. It’s a game about unbridled creativity expressed in a charmingly blocky world. Browsing the internet for the most impressive Minecraft constructions reveals that there is an incredible drive to create and play around with tools among the community. It also reveals truly phenomenal patience, imagination, and teamwork.

If you ever felt that you could never truly realize your creative vision through Lego, try Minecraft. Or just try it in general, and you may well find yourself creating a replica of Minas Tirith or Castle Grayskull in no time at all!

Tetris

Originally created in 1984, Tetris was a fairly simple game. Shapes composed of four tiles are falling down a “well” and piling up. When at some level the resulting structure stretches fully between the well’s walls, that level is removed, and the structure settles down. The goal is to keep creating the lines in order to prevent the structure from reaching the top level of the well. It actually plays better than it sounds!

The game was originally played to simplified tunes of an old Russian folk song, Korebeiniki.

If there is any game of any kind everybody should play (provided they haven’t already), there simply is no other game. Tetris is the king.

Portal

In this game, you get a portal gun, which can shoot two oval portals onto compatible surfaces, and you can move between said portals freely. That’s it. Everything happens in real time, and the momentum is preserved, so you can create an endless fall tunnel for yourself if you want.

Portal is all about finding ways of navigating the increasingly more convoluted puzzles set up as “tests” by a deranged AI called GLaDOS. It’s based on logic as much as physics. Portal is newbie-friendly enough, boasting a gentle difficulty curve, making it a very good entry-level game.

BioShock

In the original BioShock game, the city of Rapture was a stunning place. It was full of 1940s-inspired imagery, and the regular enemies were more disturbing than your run-of-the-mill zombies, despite fitting the same archetype, and the prevailing motif of morality and free will made it an absolute hit.

The twist towards the end of the game was masterfully woven into the plotline, not only exploiting the narrative structure but also feeding upon the habits that gamers have developed over the years. BioShock scores an A in gameplay and story integration in this respect.

BioShock is a great game even for people who typically avoid the genre, and a significant enough achievement to be important to the world of gaming as a whole. Well worth experiencing, and a true classic worthy of the name.

Warcraft III

Yes, what you know now as a leading MOBA that you play on Steam began life as a W3 mod way back when, which is something people will start to forget the further we move into the future, so it bears repeating.

Despite its visuals not exactly matching the sweeping epic tale of corruption and betrayal, it was a blast of a game in other respects, mixing traditional base-building with simple action-RPG elements, such as specific hero powers, or items to equip. If you’re going to play just one strategy game in your lifetime, it should be Warcraft III.