Ranked / Games
The Ten Games That Defined the Last Decade
The CrossBinge Desk · 8 min read
The criteria: each entry had to leave a mark visible in at least three other games released after it. Influence, not just quality.
1
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Game / 2015
The ceiling for narrative open worlds. The writing, the systems, the sheer density of things worth doing. No game since has matched all three simultaneously.
2
Red Dead Redemption 2
Game / 2018
An open world that functioned as a working economy and a working ecosystem. The detail was not spectacle; it was load-bearing.
3
The Last of Us
Game / 2013
Reframed what player relationship with a protagonist could mean. The ending still sits in the chest.
4
God of War
Game / 2018
Stripped the open world back to mythology and weight. Kratos is a better character than any of the men he killed getting there.
5
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Game / 2017
Solved traversal so completely that every game after it with a map has had to explain why climbing doesn't work the same way.
6
Mass Effect 2
Game / 2010
The best ensemble in the medium's history. The loyalty system made choices feel like commitments rather than menus.
7
Uncharted 4: A Thief's End
Game / 2016
Proved that blockbuster production values and moment-to-moment character work were not competing priorities.
8
BioShock Infinite
Game / 2013
The follow-up that used what BioShock built to argue against everything BioShock implied about player agency. A remarkable act of institutional self-criticism.
9
Portal 2
Game / 2011
The puzzle design has not been equaled. The writing understood that comedy and genuine menace occupy the same register.
10
BioShock
Game / 2007
The original systemic shooter. The rules were consistent and the world held together under pressure from any direction.