this post was submitted on 27 May 2025

169 points (92.9% liked)

Games

38841 readers

1655 users here now

Welcome to the largest gaming community on Lemmy! Discussion for all kinds of games. Video games, tabletop games, card games etc.

Weekly Threads:

What Are You Playing?

The Weekly Discussion Topic

Rules:

Submissions have to be related to games
No bigotry or harassment, be civil
No excessive self-promotion
Stay on-topic; no memes, funny videos, giveaways, reposts, or low-effort posts
Mark Spoilers and NSFW
No linking to piracy

More information about the community rules can be found here and here.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

169

What games are just objective masterpieces? (lemmy.world)

submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

280 comments fedilink hide all child comments

top 50 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] [email protected] 8 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago)

So I think it's actually really important that the games that would be considered objective masterpieces would have to overcome any language barriers and be an experience approachable by anyone. You can learn the mechanics to enjoy the gameplay without words
So:

Portal
Journey
Binding of Isaac
Shadow of the Colossus
Metro 2033 (which I have sat on and I believe even if it was entirely in Russian you would still get it )
DOOM (original you don't need words you shoot)
Super Mario Bros. 3
Katamari Damacy

Then there are dialogue option stories that are fantastic stories that I could consider greats but shareable masterpieces is hard to say as they rely on you speaking the language both literally and then gameplay wise:

Stanley Parable
Outer Wilds
Tales From the Borderlands
To the Moon
Talos Principle
Golf Club Wasteland
Dead Space

[–] swordgeek 6 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Portal 1/2 of course.
Grim Fandango. (Flawed yes, but absolutely a masterpiece)
Psychonauts.
Fallout New Vegas.
System Shock (the original).
The Longest Journey.
Mass Effect. Maybe.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Portal 1 & 2 were the first to my mind as well. I really like this list, actually.

[–] swordgeek 1 points 7 hours ago

Glad to hear it.

I'm tempted to add Red Dead Redemption 2 to the list, but it's too new for me to decide yet.

I think it belongs. It was the greatest storytelling game I've played in a decade or more.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

What's left of edith finch.

Such an amazing game. Absolute masterpiece.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 15 hours ago

This is the game I used to convince my film nerd friends that games can be art too. They really enjoyed playing through it!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 13 hours ago

Honestly, many of them you know full well, but that's because yes, they are that good:

Minecraft
TES III Morrowind and TES V Skyrim
The Witcher 1 and 3
Deus Ex Human Revolution and Mankind Divided
Cyberpunk 2077
Dishonored 1 and 2
Warcraft III and World of Warcraft

Completely deserve their legendary status

[–] [email protected] 5 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (1 children)

Immersive sims: Prey, Dishonored, Deus Ex

Story-driven: The Last of Us, Horizon Zero Dawn, Halo, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Uncharted, HL2, Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, Splinter Shock, The Walking Dead

Platformer: Braid, Ori and the Blind Forest, Mario 64, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, Limbo

Action/roguelike: Bastion, Hades

RPG: Fallout: New Vegas, Mass Effect

Puzzle: Lumines, Puzzle Quest, World of Goo, You Must Build a Boat, Reigns, Threes, Meteos

Other: Desert Golfing

[–] [email protected] 2 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

I always forget how absolutely awesome Escape From Butcher Bay is until I'm reminded of its existence and its shockingly unfair to that game.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

I'd kill for a new Riddick game!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 15 hours ago

I still think the series is actually the best Space Opera and I do mean opera. But they have some great stories.

I'd love another Riddick game too. I'll settle for the 4th movie I guess for now

[–] [email protected] 7 points 17 hours ago

Spec Ops: The line

Basically the "committing war crimes isn't funny after all" game

This is your fault, god-damnit 🫵

[–] [email protected] 3 points 14 hours ago

Minesweeper.

Simple, endlessly playable.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 17 hours ago (3 children)

Okay, now do it all on a bell curve.

What's the most absolute medium game, to which all other games are compared to, and if worse, fail, or are better and pass?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 13 hours ago

Hell I'd make that a separate post!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Oooooh I like that question. I feel like it would have to be some kind of Call of Duty, right? Some absolutely mediocre slop that still has enough mechanical satisfaction and mind-numbing explosion-and-cliché-filled story to keep you somewhat entertained, yet still remaining completely forgettable.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 16 hours ago

The McDonald's of videogames.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 16 hours ago

Pong.

It's that or tetris

[–] [email protected] 7 points 18 hours ago

RDR2. Witcher 3. Fallout New Vegas.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 21 hours ago

Celeste. Emotional narrative that seamlessly blends with the gameplay, which implementa never before seen accessibility configuration, enhanced by one of the best soundtracks ever. All while being cheap, indie, and one of the best speedrun games ever made

[–] [email protected] 3 points 14 hours ago

I'd say games that have set the standard for their genre, and have not been surpassed, would be the only ones that count.

Half Life 1 and then again with 2
Half Life Alyx
Age of Empires II
Baldur's Gate 3
Warframe
Ratchet and Clank: Going Commando
Knights of the Old Republic
Fallout: New Vegas
Crash Bandicoot: Warped
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and then again with Tears of the Kingdom
Elden Ring
Hollow Knight
Dirt Rally
The World Ends With You (the original NDS version)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Well, none because favorites are super subjective, but I'll shout out my favorites because no one else did:

The Wonderful 101
Bayonetta
Ninja Gaiden II
God Hand
Viewtiful Joe
Catherine
Gravity Rush
Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R
Under Night In-Birth II Sys:Celes
Persona 4 Arena Ultimax
Crimzon Clover: World EXplosion
Ketsui: Kizuna Jigoku Tachi

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 hours ago

Catherine deserves to be on someone's list so glad you have it and Gravity rush is a good choice cause it was a fun use of mechanics.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 15 hours ago (2 children)

Team Fortress 2

The best teamshooter game to date, endless copy cats that suck ass.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 13 hours ago

It does have a couple sore points. The whole aimbots running rampant was awful. And it was one of the first major games to introduce and popularize micro transactions.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 15 hours ago

And the character trailers are hilarious.

"That thing ... It scares me," Pyro shooting bubbles and lollypops in his mind actually causing pure death and destruction

[–] [email protected] 3 points 17 hours ago (2 children)

SOMA was great

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 hours ago

I've been craving another experience like SOMA but unfortunately nothing even comes close. It was probably the coolest and most disturbing story I've ever seen. Finishing that game gave me an existential crisis for like 2 days after. It was that good.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 13 hours ago (2 children)

I feel like Soma was a decent metaphysical question wrapped in a okayish walking simulator.

It got a lot of praise, but basically boils down to the question "what makes you you" with nothing else about it standing out.

If the gameplay isn't a driving factor of making the game objectively good, then I don't think it counts.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Personally I think story can make a game stand out far more than graphics or gameplay. I also disagree that the game boiled down to one question. While it was the primary focus of the narrative, the underwater laboratories and world building/history was amazing.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 hours ago

I don't disagree, but my opinion is gameplay (or the interactive nature) of games is what sets them apart from other mediums so would be a deciding factor in a masterpiece game.

But I guess it largely just boils down to the fact Soma just didn't do much for me.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

The lack of gameplay is fine, and very much important to call out for any new players. There's a whole genre of "you're playing a movie" that SOMA fits nicely into

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago)

I think a masterpiece game has to offer more than just story. Additionally I think something like Firewatch does a much better job at telling a compelling story for a walking simulator. But clearly this is why "objective" masterpiece is hard to define, as nothing is really objective in these opinions.

Other games I'd consider better in the walking simulator category:

Unfinished Swan
Firewatch
Gone Home
Stanley Parable

Edit: Fixed formatting

[–] [email protected] 1 points 14 hours ago

Elden Ring

load more comments