Sometimes it feels, and rightly so, that the games industry, outside of the indie segment, is lacking new IP. Here’re some observations from Metacritic’s fresh list of the highest-rated original games of the 21st century.
Left: Elden Ring | Right: Perfect Dark (top), Metaphor: ReFantazio (bottom left), Jet Set Radio (bottom right)
Metacritic published its top 20 last week, ranking games based on their review scores. The list covers titles released since January 1, 2000.
The top 10 can be seen below (for multiplatform games, the score is shown for the versions with the most eligible reviews):
- Perfect Dark (2000) — 97/100 | Nintendo 64;
- Halo: Combat Evolved (2001) — 97/100 | Xbox;
- BioShock (2007) — 96/100 | Xbox 360;
- Elden Ring (2022) — 96/100 | PlayStation 5;
- LittleBigPlanet (2008) — 95/100 | PlayStation 3;
- The Last of Us (2013) — 95/100 | PlayStation 3;
- Red Dead Redemption (2010) — 95/100 | Xbox 360;
- Devil May Cry (2001) — 94/100 | PlayStation 2;
- Gears of War (2006) — 94/100 | Xbox 360;
- Jet Set Radio (2000) — 94/100 | Dreamcast.
The top 20 also includes Splinter Cell (#18), Minecraft (#17), Dwarf Fortress (#14), God of War (#12), and Metaphor: ReFantazio (#11). The latter and Elden Ring are the only two titles on the list that were launched in the last five years.
16 of the top 20 games were exclusive to a specific platform at launch, though many of them were later ported to others. For example, the original Devil May Cry is now available everywhere, but it was originally released only for the PlayStation 2.
Sony has the most exclusives in the top 20, with six: four for PS2 (Okami, SSX, God of War, and Devl May Cry) and two for PS3 (The Last of Us, LittleBigPlane). It is followed by Xbox with four (Splinter Cell, Braid, Gears of War, Halo: Combat Evolved) and PC with three (Minecraft, Dwarf Fortress, Company of Heroes). There are also two Dreamcast titles: Skies of Arcadia and Jet Set Radio.
Perfect Dark, which topped the list, is the only Nintendo exclusive in the top 20. Interestingly, the IP is now owned by Microsoft, which currently has a full-scale reboot in development by The Initiative and Crystal Dynamics.
The four titles on the list that were multiplatform from the start are Metaphor: ReFantazio, Red Dead Redemption 2, Elden Ring, and BioShock.