To think that titles like Fallout 3, GTA 4, Dead Space and Mirror’s Edge are ten years old already when they feel like they were released yesterday compared to the real classics is a bit sobering, and also reminds us all how old the formative titles of the industry truly are. The young’uns might think it strange that there was a time when we launched games by inserting discs into our PCs and double-clicked desktop shortcuts instead of launching them from Steam, Origin or some other digital service - well wait till they hear about DOS commands and floppies.
It’s time to mount c c:\games\
The Best PC Exclusive Games of 2018!
BattleTech: The Crescent Hawk's Revenge
Developer: Westwood Associates
Oh, this isn’t like the Battletech game that came out this year, with all the fancy full 3D graphics. No, Crescent Hawk’s Revenge is a top-down real-time tactics game from the era before the RTS genre even existed. A precursor to Dune 2, the first real RTS, Crescent Hawk’s Revenge tells a gripping tale in two acts, carrying on from the previous Crescent Hawk game. After the previous game’s protagonist seeks to make contact with the Kell Hounds mercenary group, the Crescent Hawks end up crashing and teaming up with the Kell Hounds against the Kurita, only to later team up with them too against the Clans.
Gameplay in Crescent Hawk’s Revenge blends the beginnings of what would become real-time strategy with pausable real-time tactics. This game is lauded to this day as being the most literal and faithful translation of the board game’s rules and mechanics to a virtual platform. The campaign consists of a linear set of missions which feature encounters of varying length and difficulty, and players can control up to 4 battlemechs.
Warcraft: Orcs and Humans
Developer: Blizzard Entertainment
The game that started Warcraft. This early RTS built upon the foundations laid by Dune 2. The since immortalized RTS workflow of resource gathering, base building and army building was popularized by this game. With just Humans and Orcs being playable factions, compared to the vast array of races and organizations in Warcraft lore today it may seem simplistic at first glance. However, this is very much an RTS game that requires a knowledge of the mechanics and planning.
Warcraft: Orcs and Humans also made genre-defining steps in multiplayer, setting up mechanics and features we take for granted these days. This game is the progenitor not only of the vast Warcraft franchise, but also of StarCraft, which grew to become even more prolific.
Wasteland
Developer: Interplay Productions
Wasteland is one of the first persistent open-world RPGs, and holds up today as a fantastic virtualization of tabletop role-playing experiences. Set in a post-apocalyptic USA, Wasteland stars the Desert Rangers, the final remnants of the US army following the nuclear war that decimated society and civilization are alerted to a number of atypical disturbances - beyond, you know, the usual disturbances of a lawless fringe society holding out in a nuclear hellscape.
Wasteland introduced some groundbreaking mechanics for its time. While most other games in this era reset areas you’ve left to their default state, in Wasteland, the changes you made to the game world were permanent. This was also the first cRPG where your party members may refuse your orders in some situations. Fallout took inspiration from Wasteland in more ways than one years later.
DOOM
Developer: id Software
The quintessential retro FPS, the game that popularized one of the biggest genres of the industry, and one of the first to garner a large-scale “games are evil” controversial backlash (that probably helped it more than harmed it). Doom (or DOOM, or DooM) is one of the most influential games out there, and it has qualities we look for in FPS games to this day. Challenge, exploration, fantastic gunplay and interesting enemies.
Doom succeeds as a game on so many fundamental levels, it encapsulates the joy of playing so thoroughly - as floaty Doomguy speeds across various hellscapes, blasting demons into bloody pulp, it’s easy to get lost in it all even if the graphics aren’t exactly what you’d call “immersive” this day and age.
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
Developer: Lucasarts
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis takes the fedora-wearing adventurer/archaeologist on a quest which wouldn’t have been possible on the silver screen, at least at the time, before gaudy CGI took over everything. Being a video game gave the team a great deal of freedom, not being constrained by the same rules that bind a live-action film, and they made the most of it.
Fate of Atlantis is a SCUMM engine point’n’click title, which sees the titular character search for the titular city. In true Indiana Jones fashion, he is opposed by the Nazis who want to used the power of Atlantis for their own nefarious purposes, and he is joined by an ex-colleague who helps him out. A true classic of the genre, even though this is a DOS game, you can play a fully voice acted and prettied up version available digitally.
X-COM: UFO Defense
Developer: Mythos Games
Yet another title that gave rise to a franchise we still hold dear today, X-COM: UFO Defense introduced players to the turn-based tactical alien-repellent organization. Though visually far removed from Firaxis’ pair of masterpieces, the original X-COM was right there in terms of challenge and difficulty.
A groundbreaking title for its time, X-COM excelled in creating tense, occasionally downright stressful situations. It wasn’t just raw difficulty, but the way the game put you in the position of being able to plan out your every move, weigh all the variables, and still cock things up colossally. You can also get rather attached to your agents, and losing them always feels like a personal defeat. That’s not to say X-COM is universally depressing, it just handles tone and tension exceptionally.
Since we’re talking about one of the formative and eternally classic eras of gaming, it would be impossible to list all the games that could be considered the best designed or the most influential. I’m sure many of you will have your own contributions of “how could you leave off [game]?”, and we’ll be updating the list over time.
