Hard to say, for sure. But one of my absolute favourites gotta be Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain. The atmosphere is fantastic and is complemented with a superb voice acting/story writing. Vae Victus!
Mafia (2002) (on PC) that's simply a masterpiece (a word I rarely use) as it's my #1 all-around video game experience to date and it still holds strong to this very day as I first play it back when it was new and here and there over the years since and it never fails to deliver a strong experience and the ending is just great that competes with top quality movies. while the remake of that (i.e. Mafia Definitive Edition (2020)) is one of the best I played, it does not quite capture the overall experience like the original game does. so while the 2020 remake is obviously superior graphically, it falls short overall. for the record... the Mafia series blows away the overrated GTA series simply because the GTA series, while good enough to play through each game once, they simply don't have the lasting appeal like the Mafia series does which I replay from time-to-time as the years pass.
Red Dead Redemption 2, 100% the single player and all side missions and collectables, now onto multiplayer.
well for me one the best is chess from MSFT, but haha why is it that when i play windows 7 chess against the machine the system says it was a draw and more just check how many pieces i have and the system has only the one rofl King...
Minecraft. I know I know, but the expansive plains and forests of 1.6.4 were my escape from a dysfunctional family and still fill me with joy and optimism. I prefer 1.7.10 for most playthroughs because that's the last version a lot of classic mods (back when mods had whimsy and adventure and didn't have a million menus and programmer logic underlying everything) chose that as the last stable version they would update to before they abandoned their mod.
That game is absolutely stunning, and the Soul Reaver ones were also great. It's insane we could not match the atmosphere and sound design in almost 30 years. Not even the mechanics were bad, it's a decent RPG adequate for mid 90s. A waste of intellectual property for sure. With proper care and love, we would still have content made for that universe. Would have only partially agreed a few years ago. I quit in 2017, after playing, with pauses, at a pretty high level, raiding. By the time I left in Legion, I was very disappointed with the game. But this summer I had time to return, yet instead of bothering with the Retail, I just played Burning Crusade. I wanted to see if it was nostalgia, or the game was actually good back then. With caveats, like things being much easier now, I could definitely see why I loved WoW so much. Leveling, dungeons, raids, the social aspect, all was almost as good as in 2007. Unsubbed cause I don't have time anymore for MMOs, but the two months were great.