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1.Half-Life 2
66%
Valve’s Half-Life introduced gamers to fictional MIT professor Gordon Freeman, a bespectacled hero who saves the world from aliens. In Half-Life 2, Gordon fights still more aliens. But the Half-Life franchise is not your typical white-dude-saves-the-world game. For one thing, Gordon’s a scientist, not a soldier, so he capitalizes on brains (and tools) instead of brawn. His sidekick in HL2 is a friendly, down-to-earth biracial girl named Alyx Vance, with more of a can-do spirit (and more clothes on) than your average video game princess. Valve took inspiration from other terrifying titles like Resident Evil and Doom, and the result is a game that far outstrips its predecessors in both narrative and design. HL2 was also the first game built with Valve’s now-legendary Source engine, which they later used to make Portal, our #5 pick. We could go on and on about HL2’s innovations, but instead, let’s remember some of the game’s best moments: throwing enemies (or buzz saws) with the gravity gun, Alyx’s adorable robot “dog” aiding our heroes in combat, and wandering through pitch-blackness with nothing but a flashlight and Alyx’s steady aim to protect you. These are the moments gamers remember in their worst nightmares of alien domination . . . as well as their wildest dreams of the way games should be. _Maddy Myers
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