12. Feeling Bad After Killing A Colossus - Shadow Of The Colossus
There's another game coming later on the list that truly exemplified the nature of player agency and purpose within a given game world, but it came some two years after Team ICO's pseudo-sequel that saw you attempting to bring down a series of gargantuan mythical beasts, seemingly for no reason. Sure there were vague allegories of 'saving the Princess' or doing the right thing' (these hulking beasties were dominating, ash-black and... well, what else are you going to do?), but it was in that uncertainty of not really knowing that entirely became the point. As soon as you plunged your blade into one of their skulls and heard the yelping howls of pain (alongside the fountains of blood that filled the screen) it was an instant feeling of dissatisfaction - one that came to embody this naturalist-themed experience in a way no other game even dared.
