Twenty-five essential video games across every era, curated by ArcStow. Save them to your archive and track what you finish.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is an adventure game developed by Nintendo. It is the nineteenth installment in the series. After awakening from a hundred year sleep, memoryless Link hears a mysterious female voice that guides him to a destroyed kingdom of Hyrule. He finds a Wiseman who says that a ruthless creature, Calamity Ganon, was imprisoned for 100 years. Even though the creature is trapped, it is still gaining power. Link sets out to kill Ganon before he frees himself and destroys the world. In contrast to the previous titles in the series, Breath of the Wild the player to ex
America, 1899. The end of the wild west era has begun as lawmen hunt down the last remaining outlaw gangs. Those who will not surrender or succumb are killed. After a robbery goes badly wrong in the western town of Blackwater, Arthur Morgan and the Van der Linde gang are forced to flee. With federal agents and the best bounty hunters in the nation massing on their heels, the gang must rob, steal and fight their way across the rugged heartland of America in order to survive. As deepening internal divisions threaten to tear the gang apart, Arthur must make a choice between his own ideals and
The third game in a series, it holds nothing back from the player. Open world adventures of the renowned monster slayer Geralt of Rivia are now even on a larger scale. Following the source material more accurately, this time Geralt is trying to find the child of the prophecy, Ciri while making a quick coin from various contracts on the side. Great attention to the world building above all creates an immersive story, where your decisions will shape the world around you. CD Project Red are infamous for the amount of work they put into their games, and it shows, because aside from classic third-
The Golden Order has been broken. Rise, Tarnished, and be guided by grace to brandish the power of the Elden Ring and become an Elden Lord in the Lands Between. In the Lands Between ruled by Queen Marika the Eternal, the Elden Ring, the source of the Erdtree, has been shattered. Marika's offspring, demigods all, claimed the shards of the Elden Ring known as the Great Runes, and the mad taint of their newfound strength triggered a war: The Shattering. A war that meant abandonment by the Greater Will. And now the guidance of grace will be brought to the Tarnished who were spurned by the grac
Super Mario Odyssey is a 3D platform game, a part of Nintendo’s Super Mario series. ###Story The game follows Mario on his quest to save Princess Peach from her forced marriage with Bowser. The game starts with Mario fighting Bowser on its aircraft. Bowers knock Mario off the ship and shreds his cap into pieces. Mario awakens in the Cap Kingdom inhabited with hat-like spirits and befriends one of them named Cappy. It turns out, Bowser also kidnapped Cappy’s sister Tiara, and now the heroes must chase Bowser through several kingdoms to save Peach and Tiara. ###Gameplay The gameplay of Sup
Gordon Freeman became the most popular nameless and voiceless protagonist in gaming history. He is painted as the most famous scientist and a hero within the world of Half-Life, and for a good reason. In the first game he saved the planet from alien invasion, this time, when the invasion is already begun, the world needs his help one more time. And you, as a player, will help this world to survive. This time Gordon arrives in City 17, ravaged and occupied by Combines, where he meets his old Black Mesa friends. What is different, aside from the overall design quality, is the use of Valve’s So
Portal 2 is a first-person puzzle game developed by Valve Corporation and released on April 19, 2011 on Steam, PS3 and Xbox 360. It was published by Valve Corporation in digital form and by Electronic Arts in physical form. Its plot directly follows the first game's, taking place in the Half-Life universe. You play as Chell, a test subject in a research facility formerly ran by the company Aperture Science, but taken over by an evil AI that turned upon its creators, GladOS. After defeating GladOS at the end of the first game but failing to escape the facility, Chell is woken up from a stasis
Bone-rattling because of its complexity adventure in the Lordran, land of the ancient lords and endless mysteries. We are playing for a tacit prisoner, whose goal is to become human again. This is the first game in the series. The main game mechanics is exploration. Dark Souls is a third-person action RPG, a part of the Souls series. The player slowly advances from one point of contact to another, defeating more and more powerful enemies. Completing the game is a truly hard task with the first, one of the main features of the series - a constant repetition and search for better tactics to ove
Rockstar Games went bigger, since their previous installment of the series. You get the complicated and realistic world-building from Liberty City of GTA4 in the setting of lively and diverse Los Santos, from an old fan favorite GTA San Andreas. 561 different vehicles (including every transport you can operate) and the amount is rising with every update. Simultaneous storytelling from three unique perspectives: Follow Michael, ex-criminal living his life of leisure away from the past, Franklin, a kid that seeks the better future, and Trevor, the exact past Michael is trying to run away from.
The population of the Earth almost disappeared as a result of a pandemic caused by a mutated fungus. The disease causes irreversible changes in the human body, a person loses his mind and behaves aggressively, like a zombie. Civilization no longer exists, few survivors live in isolation under the protection of the military. Cities outside the zones are dangerous ruins inhabited by infected people and people who have almost lost humanity. Heroes, the smuggler Joel and teenage girl Ellie, are trying to cross the continent, colliding in depopulated cities with all the set of dangers. The game req
It is a new beginning for Kratos. Living as a man outside the shadow of the gods, he ventures into the brutal Norse wilds with his son Atreus, fighting to fulfill a deeply personal quest. His vengeance against the Gods of Olympus years behind him, Kratos now lives as a man in the realm of Norse Gods and monsters. It is in this harsh, unforgiving world that he must fight to survive… And teach his son to do the same. This startling reimagining of God of War deconstructs the core elements that defined the series—satisfying combat; breathtaking scale; and a powerful narrative—and fuses them an
Bloodborne is an action-RPG and another member of souls-like title series. The game has no predecessors or successors, making it the only entry with one add-on: “The Old Hunters.” The Bloodborne universe, however, also includes a comics and a board game. Generally resembling the Dark Souls series, Bloodborne, however, has some different mechanics and the pace of combat is increased thanks to the risk-rewarding battle system. Another difference is multiplayer, which comes in two kinds: you can summon other players into your game and fight bosses side by side or you can fight impostors, who are
Hollow Knight is a Metroidvania-type game developed by an indie studio named Team Cherry. Most of the game's story is told through the in-world items, tablets, and thoughts of other characters. Many plot aspects are told to the player indirectly or through the secret areas that provide a bit of lore in addition to an upgrade. At the beginning of the game, the player visits a town of Dirtmouth. A town built above the ruins of Hallownest. The players descend down into the ruins to find some answers to his questions. The game revolves mainly around the exploration of the in-game world, whic
One of the most popular games of the 2010s, Minecraft allows you to rebuild the environment around you. The world of the game is open, infinitely wide, and procedurally generated. It is composed of small 3D cubes that represent specific types of materials or terrain. The gameplay is centered on mining and building various structures of your choice. You can also craft items like tools, weapons, and armor. There's an option to shift to the first or the third person view. Minecraft includes multiple modes that dramatically change the focus of the game. Survival and Adventure modes require the pla
After having defeated Mother Brain, the leader of the Space Pirates who wanted to use alien creatures known as Metroids to dominate the world, the bounty hunter Samus Aran took the fight to the Metroids' homeland and eradicated them. Only a single Metroid larva remained. Samus took it to a galactic research station, and scientists assured her that the powers of the larva can be harnessed to help people. However, everything goes wrong when a dragon kills the scientists, takes away the larva, and destroys the research facility. Samus follows the dragon to the planet of Zebes, where she fought Mo
Chrono Trigger is a role-playing video game developed and published by Square for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1995. Chrono Trigger's development team included three designers that Square dubbed the "Dream Team": Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of Square's Final Fantasy series; Yuji Horii, a freelance designer and creator of Enix's popular Dragon Quest series; and Akira Toriyama, a manga artist famed for his work with Dragon Quest and Dragon Ball. Kazuhiko Aoki produced the game, Masato Kato wrote most of the plot, while composer Yasunori Mitsuda wrote most of the soundtrack befo
Disco Elysium is a groundbreaking blend of hardboiled cop show and isometric RPG. Solve a massive, open ended case in a unique urban fantasy setting. Kick in doors, interrogate suspects, or just get lost exploring the gorgeously rendered city of Revachol and unraveling its mysteries. Tough choices need to be made. What kind of cop you are — is up to you. You play a disgraced lieutenant detective in Revachol West, a shore town where corruption’s out of control, murders go unsolved, and the kids just wanna dance. Kick in doors, interrogate suspects, or get lost exploring a gorgeously rendered
Mass Effect II is a sequel to Mass Effect one, following the story of Captain Shepard in his or her journey in saving the Galaxy from Reapers. Just after the fight against Saren, Shepard dies and drifts in open space. Being collected by Cerberus and the lead man, The Illusive Man, Shepard has to investigate attacks on human colonies around the Milky Way, and discover that now the Reapers using some new insectoid called the Collectors. You can choose from different classes to play, for example, a Soldier, Adept or Vanguard. A cover system is the main mechanic in the fight, as you have to th
Return of the classic FPS, Doom (2016) acts as a reboot of the series and brings back the Doomslayer, protagonist of the original Doom games. In order to solve the energy crisis, humanity learned to harvest the energy from Hell, and when something went wrong and a demon invasion has started, it’s up to the player to control the Doomslayer and destroy the evil. Doom is a fast-paced game that restores the concept of instant health packs and leaves the player against armies of Hell with no cover, no health regeneration, or help from anyone. After damaging monsters enough, they will start glowing
Celeste is a platformer about climbing a mountain, from the creators of TowerFall. Explore a sprawling mountain with over 500 levels bursting with secrets, across 8 unique areas. Unlock a hardcore Remix for each area, with completely new levels that will push your climbing skills to the limit. Madeline can air-dash and climb any surface to gain ground. Controls are simple and accessible, but super tight and expressive with layers of depth to master. Deaths are sudden and respawns are fast. You'll die a lot, but you'll learn something every time. Meet peculiar characters and climb through a per
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is a game about a ninja (or shinobi, as they call it), who is seeking revenge in the Sengoku era Japan. ###Plot The game is set in the 16th century in a fictionalized version of Japan. The main protagonist is a member of a shinobi clan. A samurai from the rival Ashina clan captured the protagonist's master, and the protagonist himself lost his arm trying to protect his leader. However, a sculptor of Buddha statues managed to replace the lost limb with an advanced prosthetic arm. The protagonist accepted a new name, Sekiro, meaning “one-armed wolf”. Now his goal is to
The story shifts back to 1964, the height of the Cold War. Naked Snake heads into Soviet territory to help the scientist Sokolov defect to the West. But due to the betrayal of Snake's mentor and mission advisor The Boss, a female soldier known as "the Mother of Special Forces", Naked Snake fails and heads back into the Soviet Union on a mission to kill The Boss... The third MGS game tells the story of men and women who struggle to remain loyal even while their fates are at the mercy of the ever changing political "scene."
Survival is just the beginning Resident Evil 4 is a remake of the 2005 original Resident Evil 4. Reimagined for 2023 to bring state-of-the-art survival horror. Resident Evil 4 preserves the essence of the original game, while introducing modernized gameplay, a reimagined storyline, and vividly detailed graphics to make this the latest survival horror game where life and death, terror and catharsis intersect.
Gather your party, and return to the Forgotten Realms in a tale of fellowship and betrayal, sacrifice and survival, and the lure of absolute power. Mysterious abilities are awakening inside you, drawn from a Mind Flayer parasite planted in your brain. Resist, and turn darkness against itself. Or embrace corruption, and become ultimate evil. From the creators of Divinity: Original Sin 2 comes a next-generation RPG, set in the world of Dungeons and Dragons. Choose from a wide selection of D&D races and classes, or play as an origin character with a hand-crafted background. Adventure, lo
Having received a letter from his deceased wife, James heads to where they shared so many memories, in the hope of seeing her one more time: Silent Hill. There, by the lake, he finds a woman eerily similar to her... "My name...is Maria," the woman smiles. Her face, her voice... She's just like her. Experience a master-class in psychological survival horror―lauded as the best in the series―on the latest hardware with chilling visuals and visceral sounds.
