Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Disco Elysium
Alpha Centauri
Super Marios Bros 3
Bloodborne
Ori 1 & 2
Fallout 1 & 2
Planescape: Torment
The Outer Wilds

Heres a list of some favorites:

Imperfect perfection: Morrowind

Perfect perfection: Starcraft Brood War

Objective perfection: Plants vs Zombies

Subjective perfection: Knights of the Old Republic

Perfect for its time: Gauntlet IV

Perfect timeless: Sonic 2

Perfect for its genre: LOZ Minish Cap

Perfect All-in-one: Shenmue II

I'm taking this to mean games that stand out in or define their genre, are widely considered to be excellent, are timeless, and there's very little if any fat to trim.

• Super Mario Brothers - NES
• Super Mario 64
• Dark Souls - maybe Elden Ring takes over?
• Return of the Obra Dinn
• Half Life 2 - honorable mention: Left 4 Dead 2
• Diablo 2
• Doom
• Tetris
• Chrono Trigger
• Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
• Portal 2
• Little Nightmares - honorable mention: INSIDE
• GTA SA
• Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2

These aren't necessarily my favorite games, but games I think are well respected. I probably missed a bunch.

Doom (93) I guess ?

Also HL and HL2

Dragon Age: Origins and Bioshock

• dark souls
• elden ring
• bloodborne
• sekiro
• outer wilds
• doom 2016
• binding of isaac

Witcher 3 for me.

RimWorld

MAD MAX from 2015, while not tied directly to the new movies it scratches an itch I haven’t found in any other game. It’s dark and bleak and brutal. The combat on foot and behind the wheel are both incredible. Nothing quite like being in the middle of ripping a convoy 7 new assholes and being hit with a dust storm. It can be repetitive if you want to complete everything but BY THE GODS OF VALHALLA is it a fucking blast.

I think masterpieces is one word.

RDR2. Witcher 3. Fallout New Vegas.

Supergiant games' holy trinity: Bastion, Transistor and Pyre.

Also, the only Borderland games 1 and 2; don't believe the lies there are no more true Borderlands games and no there most certainly is no movie.

There's also one other, but you'll need a crowbar or a gravity gun in hand for me to tell you about it.

Undertale

I don't see Goldeneye on your list.

Hades

Hollow Knight

Noita

Super Metroid

Prey (2017)

DOOM (2016)

Factorio

Stardew Valley

• Portal 1/2 of course.
• Grim Fandango. (Flawed yes, but absolutely a masterpiece)
• Psychonauts.
• Fallout New Vegas.
• System Shock (the original).
• The Longest Journey.
• Mass Effect. Maybe.

The Spyro the dragon trilogy for me is just an absolute masterpiece.

Final Fantasy VII, IX and X are three master pieces

Metroid prime and fusion

Fatal Frame trilogy on the PlayStation 2, Forbidden Siren, Silent Hill 2, Resident Evil 2 are amongst the best of the best

The Witness

Super Metroid is still the first that comes to mind. Amazing experience from start to finish.

Left4Dead2 (also L4D1)

Curious to hear what the criteria for "masterpiece" is, otherwise I think it is just peoples' subjective opinion of what makes a great game that they also think others might agree about being a great game. Genuinely curious, interested in discussion, not saying this to shut down any of the answers here.

Okay, now do it all on a bell curve.

What's the most absolute medium game, to which all other games are compared to, and if worse, fail, or are better and pass?

So I think it's actually really important that the games that would be considered objective masterpieces would have to overcome any language barriers and be an experience approachable by anyone. You can learn the mechanics to enjoy the gameplay without words
So:

• Portal
• Journey
• Binding of Isaac
• Shadow of the Colossus
• Metro 2033 (which I have sat on and I believe even if it was entirely in Russian you would still get it )
• DOOM (original you don't need words you shoot)
• Super Mario Bros. 3
• Katamari Damacy

Then there are dialogue option stories that are fantastic stories that I could consider greats but shareable masterpieces is hard to say as they rely on you speaking the language both literally and then gameplay wise:

• Stanley Parable
• Outer Wilds
• Tales From the Borderlands
• To the Moon
• Talos Principle
• Golf Club Wasteland
• Dead Space

Games I haven't seen mentioned yet:

• Fez - cute little 2D/3D platformer. It's amazing and very wholesome

• Stalker: Shadow of Chenrobyl - dunno what exactly is it, perhaps the settings and the grit, but it has a special place in my heart. It's about average FPS, but not too long and for me enjoyable

• F.E.A.R. - very good FPS, with amazingly scripted enemies, decent horror elements (not compulsory - you might miss some of them if you're not looking).

• Prince of Persia: Warrior Within - for me the best 3rd person action adventure ever. Best combat hands down (or head, or torso, you choose), streamlined blade dance at your fingertips. You play with your enemies, and you get many tools. There are some locked camera issues.

• Touhou: Lost branch of time - If you liked Slay the Spire, but wished for colorful mana, this is the game for you. It has anime artstyle, I usually focus on the cards, though it might turn some people off

• Dota 2 - Dunno if it was mentioned and I didn't see, but the mechanics are absolutely amazing, the things the game lets you get away with are incredible. 10/10, but other people might bring your experience down. Specially friends. Can play against custom (workshop) bots. Still takes too long to git gud. I studied the game for 10 years and still sucked.

• Divinity 2: Original Sin - also haven't seen a mention, everybody talks about BG3, I haven't yet played it, but D2:OS was also a masterpiece. Haven't played a lot of TRPGs, this was a blast, with easily set up multiplayer. Played through it twice completely, with many abandoned runs.

• CS 1.6 - remember that? I lost my childhood to that. They don't make counter strikes this good anymore.

• Synthetik - top-down rougelike shooter, with amazing weapons and physics and classes and enemies and mechanics and 2 person multiplayer

• Dwarf Fortress - the real objectively best game :D strategy simulation of the 3D box world, predecesor to both Minecraft and Terraria, but with A LOT more sand in your box. They are still extending it. And it's on Steam if you want a UI.

• Terraria (Calamity mod) - Terraria is obviously a great game, but what makes it 20/10 is the mods. Calamity specifically. Tripple the content, 5x the difficulty (20x if you try Infernum), amazing multiplayer experience. Don't install Infernum if you haven't beaten at least Revengeance on Calamity. Trust me, it will fuck you up.

• Yakuza 0 - how could I forget about this masterpiece? Story done absolutely right, that game had no business making me feel so strongly about it. Cool combat, very funny moments, but I cried during it. If you haven't tried it, check it out. You won't regret it.

• OpenTTD - Trains. Do you like to create and manage big rail systems? This is for you. And your friends. Only noobs use planes. Only psychos use boats. Nobody uses only vehicles.

Zelda Breath of the wild for me. Don't get me wrong I enjoyed Tears of the Kingdom but breath of the wild scratched a perfect itch for me. Especially master mode. Well over 1000 hours played.

There hasnt been yet a game that could replicate the experience I ld had when I played Planescape: Torment

Inside.

Metro 2033. Played it in the dark with good surround sound headphones on, and it's positively claustrophobic.

Last Light is good too, but at little too optimistic IMHO. 2033 nails that endless pit of despair feeling, with just enough lucky breaks that you might make it through.

Sekiro

Few games have such tight game design, story, lore, and characters blended so well into a single experience.

I don't think I even want or need a sequel.

None. There's no such thing as an objective master piece. Games are art which is, by definition, subjective.

Edited to add, well this was way more controversial than I thought it would be.

It took a while to get there, but Cyberpunk 2077.

Sid Meier's Pirates.

Either version.

S tier

• Lufia
• Dragon Warrior 3
• Final Fantasy 3 & 7
• Sonic Adventure
• The Guardian Legend
• Ecco the Dolphin
• Silent Hill
• Mario Kart
• Dark Cloud 2
• Chronotrigger
• Zelda: A link to the past
• Submachine (flash)

A tier

• Oddworld, Abe’s Odyssey
• Resident Evil: codename Veronica
• Banjo Kazooie
• Mario RPG
• Donkey Kong Country
• Earthworm Jim
• Battletoads
• Wizards and Warriors 2
• Megaman 2
• Populous
• One Chance (flash)
• Daymare Town (flash)
• Abadox - hardest game I ever beat

B tier

• The Lion King
• Overlord
• Oregon Trail
• Dinopark Tycoon
• Snowboard Kids
• South Park
• Kid Icarus
• Sweet Home
• Monster Party
• Dr Mario
• Abobo’s Big Adventure (flash)
• Alice is Dead Ep 1 (flash)
• Starfox
• Shadowgate