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The best games of the 2000s
The defining games of the 2000s, ranked by rating.
The 2000s gave games like Super Mario Galaxy, BioShock, and Grand Theft Auto IV — titles that built their own physics, cities, and societies from scratch. The eight picks here range from gravity-hopping platformers to underwater ruin to immigrant crime drama, but each one commits fully to a fictional world with its own internal logic. Together they trace a decade when the medium started asking what kind of place, and what kind of story, only a game could hold.
Best games of the 2000s
Game
Super Mario Galaxy
Mario traverses gravity-bending galaxies, blasting between planets and navigating shifting gravitational fields across the cosmos.
Game
Metroid Prime
Retro Studios and Nintendo's first-person action-adventure brings the Metroid franchise to the GameCube in a new perspective.
Game
Perfect Dark
The full campaign unlocks every gadget, upgrade, and story twist in this polished classic package.
Game
Half-Life 2
Gordon Freeman, gaming's voiceless protagonist, returns — painted as hero and scientist in a world with planetary stakes.
Game
BioShock
An FPS with RPG elements set in Rapture, an underwater city that began as a vision of a better future and failed.
Game
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Nathan Drake hunts hidden treasure through fights, chases, and riddles across exotic and hard-to-reach landscapes.
Game
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
After Shadow Moses, Metal Gear technology leaks to the black market through Revolver Ocelot, spawning variations worldwide.
Game
Grand Theft Auto IV
Niko Bellic arrives in Liberty City to reunite with cousin Roman and find the man who betrayed his army unit.
Frequently asked
Where should I start if I've never played 2000s games?
Half-Life 2 is a reasonable entry point — its pacing and moment-to-moment gameplay have held up, and its story of Gordon Freeman saving the planet gives immediate context for why he became such a recognisable figure in the decade.
Which of these games has the most ambitious story?
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and BioShock go furthest narratively. MGS2 tracks the fallout of the Shadow Moses incident and the global spread of Metal Gear technology; BioShock sets its story inside Rapture, an underwater city built as a utopian project that collapsed into horror.
Are any of these accessible to players who don't usually play action games?
Super Mario Galaxy is the most approachable — it centres on traversing galaxies and collecting Star Bits rather than combat difficulty. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves mixes puzzle-solving and chases with its action, which gives non-action players more varied ways to engage.