Old games: PC classics that are still worth playing

1- X-COM: UFO Defense.
Strategy gaming meets turn-based tactics. The first X-COM game is still one of the best strategy games ever released on PC. It inspired the team that went on to make Fallout, birthed several spin-offs and sequels, and was officially remade in 2012 as XCOM: Enemy Unknown – one of the other best strategy games ever made on PC. That’s some legacy.

In X-COM: UFO Defense, much like in the remake, players are tasked with defending Earth from an alien invasion. In doing so, players must manage the clandestine X-COM group, choosing where to position bases and what technologies to research in order to effectively combat the extraterrestrial threat. As an extension of that players must also win battles on the ground using a squad of X-COM soldiers in turn-based tactical combat.

The game itself has aged brilliantly where gameplay is concerned, though it’s nowhere near as pretty as its modern-day remake. Assuming total control of mankind’s final barrier against the alien menace is still a total joy – progressing through the research tree, turning your operatives into psionic super-soldiers, and then deploying them in the field to kick xeno-butt never gets old.

2- Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee
A 2D platformer where absolutely everything can kill you in an instant: large drops, any enemy attack, grazing past an obstacle, overcooking a grenade, the list goes on. Its puzzles are complex, its gaps between saves overly long, and its enemies nearly impossible to avoid. Frustrating? Rewarding is the word you’re looking for. Probably.

At the centre of all this struggle is the titular Abe, an enslaved Mudokon who discovers the meat processing factory he’s waxing the floors of is soon to be the slaughterhouse of his race. Abe breaks free and begins a quest of emancipation that the player can either go along with (making their journey much more difficult) or ignore. Choosing to steer a group of your own people into a volley of gunfire as a means of distracting an enemy is never an easy decision to make.

3- Half-Life
Back in 1998, Half-Life’s storytelling and the conviction of its fictional world were far beyond anything else in the genre. Hell, they were beyond anything else in gaming.

The quality is evident right from the magnificent opening in which you fly through the Black Mesa Research Facility. Radioactive waste passes by, witty comments sound out from speakers overhead, doors open and close all around. Valve crafted a truly convincing world, one that was full of minutiae and intricacies that you could pore over in between all the alien fighting and physics-based puzzling. Seamless level transitions and a narrative that never broke away from the first-person perspective make this game as compelling to play today as it was upon release.

As testament to the enduring love fans have for the Half-Life series, there are still a number of fan-made narrative expansions being released for the game, like the Sven Co-op standalone

4- Deus Ex
Visually, Deus Ex hasn’t aged as gracefully as some of the pixel-era games on this list, but its deep RPG systems, dense hub-worlds, and intriguing conspiracy crackpot plot make it proper ‘PC games bucket list’ fodder.

The number of ways in which you can tackle the game's missions still holds up today – you have countless means of moulding JC Denton to your play style, and your choices about how you interact with the world all feel significant. In terms of empowering the player with choice, Deus Ex continues to be the gold standard for RPGs to strive for. If you go back to it, check out the free Deus Ex Revision mod to snazz up the game for modern rigs.

5- Outlaws
The lack of tribute to this gunslinging wild-western shooter is no less criminal than the exploits of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Outlaws was among the PC's best first-person shooters, sprite-based or not.

The gameplay featured several innovations that made it stand out from its peers, including a manual reload system, and the first ever sniper scope used in a shooter. The orchestrated Sergio Leone-inspired soundtrack is spine-tingling, and the animated cutscenes have that lovely LucasArts touch that gives some context to the tough, rootin’ tootin’ gunfights taking place across trains, frontier towns, and other environs of the Old West. Outlaws is a goldmine of excellent stylistic and gameplay features in a classic FPS package.