Playing a video game could be fun and easy, but building it is the opposite. When a developer team makes a game, they take care of writing, designing, animation, and other state-of-the-art technologies. Additionally, they have to build good levels, great stories, and exemplary gameplay mechanics to compete with some of the best titles on the market.
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Yet, the biggest challenge isn’t creating all these things but making them work simultaneously to create an unforgettable experience. Some games do an excellent job at it, and others don’t. However, a few selective titles do it so well that gamers keep playing them for years. Here are a few examples.
10Second Life
The story ofSecond Lifebegan in 2003 when it came out to give people a chance to live their dream lives in a virtual world. WhileSecond Lifebrands itself as an online multimedia platform, it is more or less amassively multiplayer online role-playing gamewhere players do not have a set objective.
In 2022, this nineteen years old game is still an active community, and it recently reported that it has around 64.7 million active users on the platform. The best part aboutSecond Lifeis that it’s completely free to play.
9Grand Theft Auto 4
It’s hard to believe thatGrand Theft Auto 4came out 14 years ago, especially seeing how good it looks today. From the storyline to the physics system and overall tech, Rockstar Games did a brilliant job in 2008 that still shines in 2022. Therefore, there’sno denying that people are still playingGrand Theft Auto 4just to experiencethat beautifully dynamic world of Liberty City.
Additionally, the game has tons of mods and an active modding community, which is a big reason why many players still have the game installed on their hard drives.
Left 4 Dead 2is a first-person shooter game where players fight against zombies to progress through the story. The Valve title initially came out in 2009 and quickly became a hit among players for various reasons. First, this game is a co-op title with different competitive modes and difficulty options.
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Second,Left 4 Dead 2has avibrant modding community that’s always coming up with new gameplay modesfor players to enjoy. Hence, this thirteen-year-old game is still going pretty strong on Steam and has over thirty to fifty thousand active players daily.
7Quake
The originalQuakecame out in 1996 and was one of the first arena shooters that got extremely popular. Over the years, this id Software title has become an enormous success. It has spawned various sequels such asQuake 2, Quake 3 Arena, Quake 4,the infamousEnemy Territory: Quake Wars,andQuake Champions.
However, the original game is still one of the best in the series, and players worldwide play it regularly.Quakehas also got various recent updates, including the all-new “Dimension of the Machine” expansion pack.
6Team Fortress 2
Team Fortress 2does not need an introduction, as it has been one of Steam’s most popular Valve multiplayer games for the last fifteen years. This first-person shooter game originally came out in 2007 and has since become the staple of its genre. Interms of gameplay,Team Fortress 2is still functionaland relatively playable.
As for the graphics, it stands out due to Valve’s brilliant art design that still looks fresh. However, it’s the evergrowing community of this game that keeps players engaged.
5EverQuest
EverQuestis one of the oldest successful massively multiplayer online role-playing games. It is also one of the rare titles where the words Ubisoft & Sony Online Entertainment appear right next to each other, as they’ve published it in different regions. At its core,EverQuestis afantasy-themed RPG title that got quite famous for using 3D visualsin the early 2000s.
However, more so, it’s the pretty fun gameplay that has people still playing it after two decades of its launch. According to Wikipedia,EverQuesthad over “82,000 monthly active players” some time ago.
4RuneScape
LikeEverQuest,RuneScapeis another massively multiplayer online role-playing game from the early 2000s. However, the reason why this game has such an active player base is due to developer updates. In 2022,RuneScapeis no longer its classic self. Instead, it has become a more modern, visually up-to-date experience while maintaining its core values.
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Similar to other MMORPGs,RuneScapehas its own fantasy world, characters, and backstories.It also has a great interaction system and PvP combat that’s quite engaging. Hence, players keep coming back to this game years after its release.
3Counter-Strike
Counter-Strikeis a first-person shooter from the year 2000 and one of the oldest multiplayer games from Valve. Shockingly, it is still prevalent among gamers 22 years after its release. The Valve shooter may be outdated in the visuals department, but the easy-to-access gameplay, the nostalgia, and the quick-play nature of the game have kept it active years later.
Even the latest iteration of the gameCounter-Strike: Global Offensiveis over 10 years oldat this point. However, the popular shooters still have a massive player base on Steam.
2Age Of Empires
The genre of real-time strategy video games is no longer as popular as it once was. After all, people nowadays love playing fast-paced action shooters, battle royales, and more fast-paced action shooters. Still,Age Of Empiresretains a substantial active player base twenty-five years after its inception.
Even though the fourth main game,Age of Empires 4, recently came out in 2021, the original 1997 title and its 1999 sequel still get a lot of love from players. According to Steamcharts,AOE 2currently has over twenty thousand active players, which is quite impressive.
1Diablo II
Last but not least,Diablo 2is an action role-playing hack-and-slash masterpiece that came out in the summer of 2000. It is regarded as Blizzard’s magnum opus for various reasons, but the top one is the amount of content in it. At its core,Diablo 2is a story-driven game that has brilliant lore and over five different classes to master.
However, people still play it due to thefantastic multiplayer component that functions flawlessly 22 years later.Moreover, Blizzard Entertainment recently dropped the remake of the original game, which boosted its player count even more.
