1. Deus Ex.
Immersive story, player driven, choices affect the entire game not just the level. Linear story but not linear game play. Great replay value.
2. System Shock II
Immersive story, great use of indirect storytelling (using the environment, disjointed (think pulp fiction), well written characters) open world, good game play, not a twitch game and was quiet forgiving. Great replay value. Bioshock was a disappointing successor.
3. Half Life 1
Great storytelling (no cut scenes), good game play, nice long game with varied environments and enemies. Not too much of a twitch game. Infinitely moddable (big plus here) which only increased its already immense replay value. Half life 2 was incredibly good but still no match for the original.
4. Far Cry.
Great graphics. Good game play, semi open world but it does tend to drag you down the path(s) it wants you to go down. Crysis is worth a mention here but not on its own as it’s pretty much the same thing with shinier graphics (but oh so shiny). Not so much replay value but still has a bit.
5. S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
Original, open world, nice blend of RPG elements, well designed imagery of a post apocalyptic world, day\night cycle changed the behavior of the creatures. Moderate replay value (would be better if I liked horror genre’s).
Honourary mention, Wolfenstien 3D
It started it all, my first FPS game, from my first level side scrollers were dead to me. I must of finished it over 30 times.
A few things I disagree with from your list,
HL 2,
A good game but it will never compare with the original. If you are going to mention HL2 you should mention HL1 first IMO.
GRAW,
I like Tactical shooters but this one I didn’t like. I liked Rainbow 6 (raven shield, haven’t played Las Vagas) but the idea of checkpoints in a tac shooter bothered me. Not bad but to me its not a tactical shooter and was just annoying, the planning phase is instrumental in a good tactical shooter.
COD 1
Was good, incredibly linear but had good replay for such an extremely linear game. I liked how the game play was forgiving, good for when you want to switch your brain off and play.
COD 2-4
Absolute crap in my opinion. Over used, no originality, WWII and Modern Combat genre’s done to death. these games offered nothing new to me and a few hours of frustration that in the end lacked any feeling of accomplishment.
