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15 Video Games With Near-Perfect Scores Everywhere

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Nazarii Verbitskiy

Gaming - November 11th 2026, 18:30 GMT+1

15. Satisfactory (2024) — 91/100

The first time a machine makes an iron plate for you, it’s tempting to stand there and admire it. A few hours later, you’re halfway up a cliff trying to work out why the screws have stopped coming. Playing *Satisfactory* in first person makes a wonderful difference here. You can walk the entire production line, find the offending conveyor belt, and quietly fix the engineering decision you were so proud of yesterday. | © Coffee Stain Studios

14. Bloodborne (2015) — 92/100

A werewolf takes a chunk out of your health bar. Every sensible instinct says to back off and heal, but that little orange strip shows how much health you could get back if you hit the bastard *right now*. That split-second negotiation gives *Bloodborne* its peculiar rhythm. Even the pistol works best when you hold your nerve and fire into an incoming attack. Yharnam does terrible things to a cautious person. | © FromSoftware

13. Final Fantasy VII (1997) — 92/100

After the reactor bombings, the motorcycle chase, and a regrettable amount of time spent in the company of Don Corneo, escaping Midgar feels like finishing a whole RPG. Then Cloud steps onto the world map. The scale of that surprise owes everything to how well Square built its opening city, right down to the flowers growing through a church floor. Leaving Midgar feels momentous because you already know what a patch of green is worth there. | © Square Enix

The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt — 12. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (2015) — 92/100

A frying pan goes missing in White Orchard. Geralt, a professional monster hunter with two swords and a fairly pressing family emergency, agrees to investigate. The lovely surprise is that the soot scraped from the pan actually matters. Even an elderly woman who wants her cookware back gets a proper little detective story, and the next time somebody flags you down on a muddy road, you have every reason to pull over. | © CD Projekt Red

11. Hades (2020) — 93/100

Getting killed by Megaera would be considerably less awkward if she didn’t also frequent the lounge at your dad’s house. *Hades* understands the comic potential of a hero who has to keep coming home, especially when everyone knows where he’s been. You might head downstairs intending to try the bow, only to spend the next ten minutes catching up with Achilles and petting the dog. Cerberus has three heads. Allow time. | © Supergiant Games

The Last of Us 2013 — 10. The Last of Us (2013) — 95/100

Watch Ellie when Joel goes looking for a ladder late in their journey. A routine the two have performed across half the country suddenly takes a beat longer than usual, and you can feel how far away her mind is. Naughty Dog gets plenty of credit for the performances in its cutscenes. Just as impressive is how much those actors can tell you while you’re standing under a ledge, waiting for the usual boost. | © Naughty Dog

9. Portal 2 (2011) — 95/100

Give two friends four portals, one laser, and a pit, and you’ll learn a great deal about the limits of the word “there.” Valve anticipated the problem. Its co-op campaign lets Atlas and P-body mark a patch of wall or start a countdown, so even an elaborate bit of synchronized flinging feels manageable. Of course, your partner can still move the exit portal while you’re in midair. No interface can fix your choice of friends. | © Valve

8. Mass Effect 2 (2010) — 96/100

Who goes into the ventilation shaft? It sounds like a minor staffing decision until the door seals behind a squadmate you’ve spent thirty hours getting to know. *Mass Effect 2* builds its finale around the distinction between liking someone and knowing what they’re good at. All those visits to the Normandy’s engine room and main battery suddenly feel like part of Shepard’s job. A commander probably ought to know who can hack a door. | © Electronic Arts

Elden ring — 7. Elden Ring (2022) — 96/100

That gold-plated horseman near the start of *Elden Ring* has an excellent chance of teaching you how to open the map and go somewhere else. Head east and you might find a modest stone building with a lift inside. It goes down for an improbably long time before opening onto Siofra River and a sky full of underground stars. All of that because one bloke on a horse looked a bit much for a Tuesday. | © FromSoftware

Half Life 2 — 6. Half-Life 2 (2004) — 96/100

Most shooters train you to scan a room for ammunition. Ravenholm has you looking for circular saw blades, loose radiators, and anything else Gordon Freeman’s gravity gun can pick up. After a particularly good shot, you can even retrieve the blade for another go. It’s an ingenious way to stage a horror level. You have to pay close attention to the room precisely when every noise upstairs makes you want to leave it. | © Valve

Baldurs Gate 3 — 5. Baldur’s Gate 3 (2023) — 96/100

It takes a particular generosity to let players question a murder victim and still give the corpse grounds to refuse an interview. In *Baldur’s Gate 3*, the dead can recognize their killer. Returning in disguise is a perfectly respectable solution, at least by the ethical standards of the average adventuring party. That’s Larian at its best, anticipating the second ridiculous idea you had after the first ridiculous idea almost worked. | © Larian Studios

4. Super Mario Odyssey (2017) — 97/100

Look up at a distant rooftop in New Donk City and you can practically feel your thumbs rehearsing the route. A long jump might do it. Better throw Cappy, dive onto him, and squeeze another bounce out of the crossing. For all the attention paid to Mario possessing a dinosaur, the real luxury of *Super Mario Odyssey* is how much fun you can have with two buildings and the gap between them. | © Nintendo

Red dead redemption 2 — 3. Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018) — 97/100

Arthur Morgan keeps a journal, and his sketches are reason enough to open the thing. The man who can barely accept a compliment will happily spend a page drawing a bird he saw on the road. Reading it changes the texture of those long rides back to camp. Dutch likes to tell everyone what kind of men his gang produces. Left alone with a pencil, Arthur gives a considerably more interesting answer. | © Rockstar Games

2. Metroid Prime (2002) — 97/100

Samus can scan a Space Pirate report detailing the disastrous results of trying to copy her Morph Ball. It’s a terrific joke to tuck into a computer terminal, especially in a game that spends so much time letting you enjoy the silence. On Tallon IV, looking closely might reveal a way through a ruined chamber, a piece of Chozo history, or evidence that somebody in enemy research really should have called it a day. | © Nintendo

The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild — 1. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017) — 97/100

Dinner can wait. That cooking fire has set the grass alight, the rising air can lift Link’s paraglider, and now there’s a perfectly good route over the heads of some unsuspecting Bokoblins. Much of the pleasure of *Breath of the Wild* comes from carrying a small discovery into a completely different situation. The first time a thunderstorm makes you drop a metal weapon, remember where it lands. An enemy might pick it up. | © Nintendo

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Getting critics to agree on anything is difficult; getting them to hand out 9s and 10s in unison is practically a boss fight. Yet these video games pulled it off, earning near-perfect review scores across major publications and aggregators. Their genres, eras, and ambitions vary wildly, but each turned launch week into a rare ceasefire in gaming discourse—and most still justify the applause.

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Getting critics to agree on anything is difficult; getting them to hand out 9s and 10s in unison is practically a boss fight. Yet these video games pulled it off, earning near-perfect review scores across major publications and aggregators. Their genres, eras, and ambitions vary wildly, but each turned launch week into a rare ceasefire in gaming discourse—and most still justify the applause.