Half-Life 2

What a daunting game to try to summarize in a couple of paragraphs. Once the greatest FPS game ever made, almost two decades has certainly seen it start to curl at the edges, but it remains a gaming masterpiece. Valve’s incredibly long-delayed sequel to the mighty Half-Life, Half-Life 2 is the game that made physics fun, and is still the measure by which so many shooters are judged.

If anything, in fact, it was the game that ended single-player FPS for far too long. No one else could really compete, and everything suffered in comparison. From its Gravity Gun (introduced far later in the game than you remember), to the stunning relationships with NPCs, to that time you realized you could improvise bridges out of corrugated steel over the sand to avoid Antlion attacks, it’s a collection of iconic moments linked together by one incredibly boring hovercraft ride.

Remember the Antlion army you could control? Remember the real emotions Alyx would have you feel? Remember how fricking cool your Gravity Gun gets right at the end? It’s all still there, and all still worth playing through yet again.