Straight up one of the best games of all time. Story doesn't seem amazing until you realize it was incredibly accurate in its predictions (9/11 attacks, War on Terror, rise of China as a superpower, fear of pandemics, NSA spying on the internet...) while the gameplay is one of the best immersive sims ever made. Play it as a stealth game without killing anyone, a tactical shooter where you count every headshot, power fantasy where you're overpowered supersoldier killing everyone with a rocket launcher, or even as a puzzle game about moving boxes and finding passwords, and where you skip all the bosses via conversations.
It is funny to realize that this game is the core idea behind Vampire Survivors. You run around in a field, killing hordes of monsters that autotrack towards you, and if you kill enough you get to pick an upgrade. The only real core difference is that the game is a twin-stick shooter, where you have to actively aim and fire (aside from a few damaging upgrades), and some smaller stuff (you don't have to collect currency from dead enemies, upgrades are general purpose perks rather than weapon upgrades, and the two modes are a finite mission mode and infinite survival). Of course this game far predates VS - this version comes from 2014, but this game dates to 2003. In fact, not even that is the original - it was originally a wildly popular free game from 2002. And that's the version I originally played as a child within a year of getting my first PC. I have to say, I am biased, I spent my entire life since childhood playing this game on and off, but the fact that this kind of game survives to this day is a testament to how timeless this formula is. 15 bucks might sound steep, but you can always buy it on a sale - and I guarantee you will get you money's worth.
What fascinates me most about this game is that at it's core, it plays a lot like the retro FPS from the time it was released - just as a platformer. Enemies will spawn from thin air to ambush you like FPS 'monster closets', you have a numerical health that adds up to a 100, and because of these ambushes it becomes important to manage healing powerups, leave them for later and eventually backtrack towards them. Once you get used to and stop trying to play this game e.g. like Mega Man, this games becomes extremely fun and interesting. It's also pretty cheap (especially on sale) so heavily recommended.
FINALLY someone decided to make a game that uses the Blackthorne cover system - and even expands on it! And instead of a slow cinematic platformer, the game uses it to the maximum by being a fast-paced Run'n'Gun! Hell yes! That alone is enough to make me love the game. What a great tribute to 16 bit era.
