4. Professor Layton
Arguably the best think to have come out of the DS till date, the Professor Layton franchise boasts of games that feature wonderful stories, ingeniously directed cutscenes, likable characters, and some genius puzzles. At the same time, a Layton game can make you feel like an absolute genius, or a downright dumb person. Their stories are often a little too far-fetched, and they usually require to take a lot of baffling things for granted, but when you do see the beauty of the plots, you realize just how genius they are, and how wonderfully everything comes together at the end.
3. Mass Effect
What can be said about Mass Effect that hasn’t already been said before? We all know the games feature wonderful storylines, great characters, brilliant choice based progression and morality system, sky high production values all around, a wonderfully imagined, immersive universe and great gameplay. Sure, people could say that Mass Effect is getting more casualized with each new entry, and is trying to appeal to the “Call of Duty crowd”, but when they do delve into the experience, they realize, sooner or later, that the fast paced action in exciting and thrilling, and that the positive aspects of the game far outweigh the negative ones.
2. Gears of War
Every cover based shooter you play these days- Uncharted, Vanquish, even the Mass Effect games- they all came into being because of one game- Gears of War. Gears of War came out in 2006, featuring breathtaking visuals, a great setting, but most importantly, a great cover based shooting gameplay system. Gears of War games feature unrelenting, fast-paced, thrilling, gory action, never relinquishing its hold on you. Epic set piece moments, a revolutionary combat system and greatly realized setting made Gears of War one of the most groundbreaking games of all time, and while it may not hold up as well today, it still plays pretty darn good.
1. Uncharted
Uncharted is, to put it simply, Sony’s Mario. How? Uncharted is the one Sony franchise millions of people, gamers or no, can recognize. It doesn’t have half the appeal that Mario does, but Uncharted is Sony’s flagship franchise, and for good reason. The games feature great stories that are supported by great, likable characters and brilliantly directed cutscenes, wonderful set-piece moments, great gunplay and melee combat, and satisfying platforming sections. Uncharted is in no way revolutionary, but it is, in every way, the highest possible evolution of all aspects of a game.
Honorable Mentions:
- Dead Space
- Assassins Creed
- Bioshock
- Portal
- inFamous
