[mercutio2]

I'm curious if you could elaborate on this.

For the population I represent (never, ever, want a first person visual rendering, under any circumstance) but love high quality game mechanics, I have a hard time finding what I consider good games. Everybody wants to polish their fundamentally undesirable three dimensional scene.

[izacus]

Hmm, these last years were one of the best years in:

- strategy gaming (from Deserts of Kharak, Civilization, Paradox interactive grand strategy games, Eugen Systems games, Total War series, XCOM and more and more)

- RPG gaming (2D isometric RPGs are making a huge comeback with good writing and gameplay, things like Pillars of Eternity, new Torment, Divinty and more. 3rd person Witcher 3 collected record amount of awards and with good reason.)

- platformers (Ori, Shovel Knight), roguelikes (Darkest Dungeon, Don't starve, Spelunky, and more)

- experimental narrative games (Papers Please, This War of Mine, This is The Police)

- modern adventure games (Until Dawn, Telltales Wolf Among Us / Walking Dead / Game of Thrones and many more)

And those are only on PC and none of them are first person. Just like movies go beyond just Marvel and Transformers, gaming goes way beyond just Call of Duty and Battlefield. The AA market of smaller but still established companies (Paradox Interactive, Relic Entertainment, Telltale and many more) build great experiences and I don't think gaming market was ever so live and broad as it is these years.

[ashark]

I'd recommend Kentucky Route Zero, too, which is finally almost all out (boo episodic release models). It's what you get when people with vision, talent, some real book learnin', a good understanding of video games in general, and artistic taste set out to tell a story in video game form. Brain bleach for the various trying-too-hard, one-note "art" games out there.

[mysterydip]

While there is a lot of 3D experiences out there, a lot of the recent great games that show off interesting mechanics can be found in the 2D realm. While not an exhaustive list by any means, and not knowing your preferences, here's a handful: - terraria - stardew valley - undertale - rimworld - prison architect - nuclear throne

[overcast]

If you're a fan of Baldur's Gate and the like. Isometric CRPG's are back in full swing now. Pillars of Eternity, Pillars of Eternity Deadfire(just completed a fig.co funding), Tyranny, Torment. They are huge, deep games. Tons of under the hood mechanics going on. Definitely not point, click, kill. Requires lots of setup, strategy, on how you address each situation. Great stories.

[detaro]

In addition to mysterydip: Many RPGs and strategy games use 3D engines, but only for more "isometric" or "top down" views (downside is that they require more GPU performance than you'd think sometimes)

Also would like to mention Factorio explicitly.

[pinum]

Why the aversion to first person? I feel that something like Deus Ex would be a lot less immersive in third person.