I don’t think I ever heard the term “backlog” before the advent ofSteam, and especially Steam sales and Humble Bundles. All of a sudden, one day in the mid-2000s, we were all up to our necks in games impulse-purchased on a flash discount so deep, it felt like a dream.
No matter how much we all played, the backlog just kept getting bigger and bigger, and it still continues into the modern age.
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I’m certainly in no position to judge anyone for their unfinished games, but it does sadden me a little that some really great titles occasionally get lost in the mix. It’s not unusual; you buy a popular game on super-sale just to see if the hype is worth it, but then you never get around to it.
Based on user-reported statistics, all of these games, despite having great reputations, are still sitting alone and unplayed in a library somewhere. If you ever manage to wrest a free moment from the gaming cycle, you might want to consider knocking these gems out.
The following games are based on backlog statistics fromHowLongToBeat. Also, we’re keeping things to one game per series, just to make it interesting.
10Borderlands 2
Still The Best One
Borderlands 2
The Borderlands series, at least from my perspective, has always had a bit of a polarizing reputation. The original was very emblematic of gaming at the time: lots of numbers flying at you from all sides of the screen, shallow, overly-snarky characters and dialogue, and a heavy emphasis on multiplayer whether you wanted it or not.
Considering all of that, you probably wouldn’t think you’d need to bother withBorderlands 2. However, and I think most people would agree with me on this, Borderlands 2 is still the high point of the entire series, the best entry to date.
Yeah, it’s still eye-rolly and number-flingy, but out of every game in the series, it managed to strike the best balance of gameplay, story, and its personal identity. We can attribute a large part of that formula to the introduction of its iconic villain, Handsome Jack, who injected a lot of charisma that the first game was missing.
I did not care for the original Borderlands, and didn’t pay much mind to Borderlands 2 when it came out because of that. It was only after the game had made the rounds and Handsome Jack became a household name that I decided to give it a chance, and I’m glad I did.
9The Witcher 3
Once You’re In, You’re In
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Fextralife Wiki
Have you ever stumbled upon a media franchise that you barely knew was even a thing before, but once you get in yourself you realize it’s actually one of the hottest things since toasted bread? Yeah, that’s how it was for me with The Witcher.
The series occasionally showed up on the periphery of my view, but I never paid it any particular mind, at least untilThe Witcher 3happened. Suddenly, I became acutely aware of just how big this franchise’s fandom is.
The Witcher 3 is, in a word, dense. Like, gelatinous monster fangoriously devouring you levels of dense. Even if you haven’t played the other games, read the books, or watched the show, it doesn’t matter. Witcher 3 is dense enough to forcefully drag in anyone with even a casual interest in high fantasy settings. All you need to do is take that first step.
Admittedly, the idea of a dense RPG you’re able to’t escape from sounds intimidating, especially to those with packed backlogs, but if you don’t get it out of the way now, you never will. That’s not fair to Geralt. He’s put upon enough as it is.
8Batman: Arkham City
The Game Gotham Knights Wishes It Was
Batman Arkham City
I was always pretty tepid on Batman in my young years, due largely to his lack of actual superpowers and my lack of interest in detective stories. My tune started to change with the release of Batman: Arkham Asylum, which did a better job of illustrating what made the character cool to me, but I still wasn’t completely sold until the sequel was released:Batman: Arkham City.
Batman: Arkham City is the game that WB Games has desperately wished it could release again for over a decade, and has only fallen short with games like Gotham Knights.
While Arkham Asylum’s linearity wasn’t a bad thing, Arkham City giving you a whole slice of Gotham to patrol as Batman really sealed the deal on the formula’s viability as a fun game.
Honestly, I’m not really sure why this game is in so many backlogs beyond the usual reason of “I bought it on sale and forgot about it.” It was well-received, still runs fine, and is still a great game. Then again, maybe those aforementioned shortcomings have made people less willing to try this genre of game. Thanks for that, WB.
7Fallout: New Vegas
Do It Before The Next Show Season Comes Out
Fallout: New Vegas
If you’ve watched the live-action Fallout show, andyou should if you haven’t, you’ll recall that the last episode of the first season ended with a shaded shot of a ruined city in the middle of a desert.
That city is almost definitely the city of New Vegas, and if you want to know what New Vegas’s deal is ahead of that second season, that’s just one of several very good reasons to knockFallout: New Vegasoff of your backlog. While Fallout 3 was arguably the game that brought the Fallout series into the modern age, New Vegas was the game that perfected it.
It’s got a deep, memorable setting in the Mojave Wasteland, as well as the titular rebuilt city of New Vegas, characters who are still talked about to this day, and a combat and character-building system that’s deep enough for RPG enthusiasts, yet simple enough for casual shooting and smashing.
Part of the reason I’m champing at the bit for another season of the Fallout show is because I want to see which particular outcome of Fallout: New Vegas’s story it’ll be going with. Let me tell you, if certain characters show up, the internet is going toexplode, and you don’t want to be out of the loop on that.
6Half-Life 2
A Vital Piece Of PC Gaming History
Half-Life 2
I like to think it’s a rite of passage for any new PC gamer to playHalf-Life 2. After all, Half-Life used to be the unofficial mascot game of PC gaming as a whole, and the release of Half-Life 2 and its subsequent episode thingies really showed what Valve was capable of when it put its collective mind to it.
I actually played it for the first time on the Xbox 360 via The Orange Box, but even then I could tell it was a game that was meant to be played with a mouse and keyboard.
Half-Life 2 revolutionized the usage of physics in video game engines. Such a thing may seem bog-standard today, but back in 2004, the idea of physics objects that reacted semi-realistically to player input was positively unheard of. It was a technological marvel, with every new level showcasing its prowess, thanks in large part to the genius implementation of the Gravity Gun.
Speaking of, even if you put the tech achievements aside, it’s also just a great shooter. The physics puzzles and platforming promote out-of-the-box thinking and level design, and it never stops being funny lobbing garbage at dudes’ heads with the Gravity Gun.
Steam’s Crown Jewel
I still remember the hype train of biblical proportions that preceded the release ofPortal 2. There was an entire ARG associated with it, Steam had minigames running encouraging people to grind achievements in other games to speed up the release, and it was all my friends and I could talk about.
Given the lack of new Portal media in the years since, I’d get it if younger players don’t get the hype, but back in the day, it was a full-on groundbreaking event. Portal 2 was the holy grail of PC gaming at the time, notwithstanding the eternal mystery of Half-Life 3. The first direct sequel game Valve had put out in a king’s age.
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I’m not sure if it met everyone’s expectations, but it certainly met mine, providing a natural evolution of the simple mechanics introduced in the original game, not to mention some excellent set dressing, thanks in large part to J.K. Simmons’ performance as Cave Johnson.
You canget it for a buck during most Steam sales now, which is probably how it found its way into everyone’s backlog, but even if you paid less than lunch for it, it deserves to be experienced.
4Psychonauts
Keep Circulating The Tapes
Psychonauts
I think everyone has at least one game that nobody else in their lives seems to care about at all, and if it weren’t for the internet, it would seem like nobody else in the world does either.
For me, that game isPsychonauts, one of my most beloved games that nobody else I have met has ever played or talked about. For the life of me, I don’t understand why, especially considering it’s in so many backlogs.
Psychonauts is a collect-a-thon platformer distinct from most other games in the genre, both its gameplay and theming. Even from a casual glance, it’s weird as heck, and that’s part of why I love it. It is an unmistakably strange game with levels themed after human minds and an array of wacky, quasi-useful psychic powers.
Admittedly, Psychonauts is a pretty old game, and some parts of it haven’t aged spectacularly. It’s only getting harder to play it well on newer hardware, though, so if its legacy is to have any chance of enduring, it must be played before doing so becomes too difficult.
Even If You Know The Twist
The annoying thing about games amassing a positive reputation, no matter how deserved it is, is that important plot details tend to leak out through cultural osmosis.
You wouldn’t believe how many people I’ve watched streamBioShock, just to have a bunch of chuckleheads in chat constantly parroting “would you kindly” at each other and inadvertently give the twist away. It’s infuriating, as BioShock is genuinely one of my most favorite games of all time.
Even if you’ve already had the big twist spoiled for you, though, that doesn’t mean BioShock isn’t worth experiencing. In addition to its clever story twist, BioShock has the bones of an excellent semi-open first-person shooter befitting its spiritual predecessor, System Shock. It’s fun to shoot things, it’s fun to use Plasmids and launch bolts of lightning out of your hands, and it’s fun to explore Rapture and uncover its secrets.
That’s my other favorite thing about BioShock and its sequels: top-shelf worldbuilding. If you’re a lore head like I am, there are so many little details and hidden stories to uncover to get you speculating and headcanon-ing in BioShock, more than enough to get you to play the rest of the series.
2Undertale
Forget The Fandom, Just Try It
Speaking as someone who’s been on theUndertalebandwagon since shortly after its release, let me just say the following to anyone who hasn’t played it yet: I get it. As much as I love Undertale, it isextremelyoverexposed.
Just about every bit of the game’s overarching plot and themes has passed into the public consciousness through osmosis, and you may probably recognize the first few notes of Megalovania in an instant, even if you’ve never seen the Sans fight.
But no matter how overexposed Undertale is or how obnoxious its fanbase gets, you have to remember that all of that happened for a reason: because it’s a good game. Is it a world-altering, super-high-budget piece of media that will live on in the hearts of man for eternity? Probably not, but it’s a great story full of lovable characters, novel gameplay andboss encounters, and clever design.
I know exactly how it feels to avoid a piece of media on principle because you’ve been overexposed to it. I’m the same way with a couple of very popular anime. But if you’re able to look past that aspect of it, you might just find a game experience that will stick with you for longer than you think. Or maybe it won’t, but you can at least say you tried it.
1Hollow Knight
A True Success Story
Hollow Knight
In a similar vein to Undertale,Hollow Knightis one of those crowdfunded indie game success stories that has managed to pierce through to the mainstream to an extent. Even if you know nothing about the game itself, it’s probably been wedged into your consciousness somehow, either from its general positive press or the infinite, agonized wailing its fans produce every time a publisher’s presentationdoesn’t mention Silksong.
Besides being a genuinely positive example of independent game development success, Hollow Knight’s secret sauce lies in the perfect blending of the Metroidvania and Soulslike genres. I’m not just talking about gameplay, though that is phenomenal, but also the general tone and storytelling.
Hollow Knight gives you a massive interconnected world to explore and platform through, under which is an overarching mystery of what happened to the dead kingdom of Hallownest and its zombified denizens.
It’s also worth mentioning that all of Hollow Knight’s DLC expansions were added to the game completely free of charge. Unlike some games where you might have gotten the base product cheap but have to shell out for the gravy, what you see with Hollow Knight is what you get.
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