20 Best Video Games Of The Last 20 Years

12. Half-Life 2

Sometimes a game comes along with a certain pedigree, a feeling of genuine craftsmanship that's been applied to everything from graphics to physics, script to gameplay mechanics.

Half-Life 2 was such a game, and although many of its innovations have since been replicated in other titles - the very idea of framing a narrative around your character never leaving first-person was perfected - you can't beat Half-Life's sci-fi lore backing everything up.

Case in point: The physics-bending Gravity Gun was f*cking mind-blowing back in 2004, letting you pick up almost any part of the environment and use it on your opponents. Items and world geometry all react accordingly, and though Half-Life 2 is far from an open-world game, it has more than a handful of sandbox elements when it comes to experimenting with all those playful systems.

Therein lies the crux of why Valve's sequel just edges the original for inclusion on this list - that potent combo of storytelling and exquisitely refined gameplay. Brilliant.