Games For The End of The World

[Naltic]

I don't know if this has been done before, but I want to start a thread here about the most important games to ever play.

Imagine yourself in the distant future: life is barren, and the Earth is about to be hit by a world-ending meteor. No one can do anything about it. You, as a gaming enthusiast, have made it your journey to play the most important games ever made. What games are they going to be, and why?

 

[Enian]

Pong. I think the reason is obvious.

 

[JackNoir413]

this is just a "favorite game list" thread in disguise.
anyways a few that come to mind are:
1. ace combat 2
2. Shadow of chernobyl
3. burnout 2
4. dark souls 1 or demon souls i think these are tied
5. hyperlight drifter
6. sakuna of rice and ruin
7. bioshock 1
8. Shin megami tensei 1 ps1 edition

Now let me explain: these are the games that came to the top of my mind when i thought "great game design". Some people might disagree and i dont care, but i tried thinking of several genres that i like and what games shine the most within the genre. Dark souls 1 and demon souls are tied imo because they´re pretty similar. I tried thinking of an exemplary jrpg but what came to mind was smt1 cause i liked it a lot. i think its hard to come up with a single exemplary jrpg since a lot of them are gems.

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

Deus Ex, Threads of Fate, Panic Bomber!, International Super Star Soccer Deluxe, Lethal Enforcers II, The Secret Of Monkey Island, Loom, Daikatana 64...

 

[Samatonic Samatonic]

Not a lot of games in my mind but a few I would keep playing might be:

1. Minecraft
2. Stardew Valley
3. RuneScape (If internet still worked somehow)
4. Pokemon (a few titles)
5. Animal Crossing
6. Most souls games like Elden Ring, Bloodborne, Dark Souls, Demon Souls, Sekiro, Nioh 1&2, Nier Automa etc.
7. Final Fantasy (maybe some/all)
8. Yakuza
9. Monster Hunter
10. Chrono Trigger
11. Legend of Zelda's (a few titles)
12. Halo
13. Xenogear
14. Tekken 8
15. Wow this list is getting long...(The Title is A Lie)
16. Need For Speed Underground
17. Metal Gear Solid franchise
18. Fallout games
19. Fable
20. Witcher
21. Xcom

And yeah that's it I think, this might be my favorite to complete while having all the time in the world.
Hope you all like it.

 

[IDMTINP]

Deus Ex, Threads of Fate, Panic Bomber!, International Super Star Soccer Deluxe, Lethal Enforcers II, The Secret Of Monkey Island, Loom, Daikatana 64...

Deus Ex (specifically the first game and not really rest) cannot be overemphasized! No one who plays that game forgets about it basically ever. It is not only an important game that exemplifies the beauty of immersive sims, but almost as important as a piece of literature when it comes to its message.

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

Deus Ex (specifically the first game and not really rest) cannot be overemphasized! No one who plays that game forgets about it basically ever. It is not only an important game that exemplifies the beauty of immersive sims, but almost as important as a piece of literature when it comes to its message.

Yep. I wrote an entire article about it for this very site. That's how much it rocks.

 

[IDMTINP]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the GTA titles? At the end of the world, I would play the GTA series (more specifically, San Andreas) to remind myself of all humanity was: a horrid mess with goodness sparkled all over.

I grew up in a religious cult with high information control where they weren't shy about expressing their opinions on the state of entertainment. They released a publication that I read when I was about 8 years old, going over the implications of such a game being a best-seller. That's damn cultural impact. Every time a new GTA drops, you know about it. Everyone, gamer or not, is familiar with the "WASTED" meme. That game is a comment on and a part of human nature.

 

[Bonkers225]

Tetris

 

[Cu-Neo]

In the RPG aspect it would be this two:

But that's a lot of peak so we need to equilibrate things with this:

Sometimes one needs to know simplicity before continuing with more complicated things.

 

[Blamhammer]

End of the world you say? Welp, time to load up Outer Wilds.
EDIT sorry just saw this was the retro gaming section. Uhh...Metal Max on the NES.

 

[Samatonic Samatonic]

Just Forgot About the Dragon Age Series(Except the last one, No offense) and GTA series. As Discussed By @Cu-Neo & @IDMTINP.

However, which would be the Deus Ex one if I may ask ?
The way old one or the fairly old gold ones ? Just Saw the answer by @Waffles

Last Piece: Forgot About Red Dead Redemption, Gears of War Series.

 

[PaleFolklore]

The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series.

 

[TropicalFreeze3499]

Tetris

I second this with Tetris Effect in particular. It's combination of visuals and music tracks make a beautiful experience.

 

[KirboDeku]

Well since the world is ending, I probably don't have much time left. My shortest yet favorite game ever made is Klonoa.

 

[NoctemDead]

I read this a couple different ways. The one I've thought about is if the world came to an end and you were surviving but alone, with nothing but time, what games would you want to play? Well for me I would probably turn to JRPGs and such with quite lengthy play times that I've not managed to get through yet. Make my way through the entire SMT franchise (spin-offs included) finally. The Drakengard series. Rogue Galaxy. Haven't even touched Final Fantasy so go through those if I have a lot of time to kill.

A few thousand hours later, I'll worry about what to play next lol.

Now, if it's the scenario in the OP and it's "The world is ending in a fixed amount of time, here are games you need to experience before we all disappear" it probably looks something like:
Disco Elysium
Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines
Nier Automata
Fallout New Vegas
Silent Hill 1-3
Half-Life Series
Dark Cloud Series
Star Ocean: Till The End of Time
Death Stranding
Pretty much all of the Resident Evil series
Mass Effect 1-3
Sonic Adventure 2 (kind of an outlier on the list but I stand by it)


Plus many more, of course :)

 

[Lee__Kanker]

This is like an Xtra Xtreme version of desert island games

I guess if Im about to die I'm playing Crash 3

 

[Humility]

Legend of Mana (PS1) because it's always been a game that speaks to my heart.

 

[Yousef]

The world will only end when I end it myself.

 

[Wixman]

In terms of importance to the medium, I would say Metal Gear Solid is the most important. Its focus on storytelling and cinematics has really influenced the kind of games we see being released today.
I think Ico is important for its ability to evoke strong emotions in the player just through its gameplay, unlike Metal Gear Solid which uses lengthy cutscenes and sections of dialogue to present its story and ideas.
Ocarina of Time is what I would consider the first modern action-adventure game, so of course that has to be up there in terms of importance. It was pretty much the blueprint on how to make an adventure game in 3D.
Finally, just out of personal preference, I'll put the Yakuza games in there. I don't think that from a Western point of view they're very important, but from what I understand, they were really important in changing how Japanese audiences viewed games. The mature story and topics made a lot of people see how games could be just as respectable as TV or film.