FTL: Faster Than Light (2012)

A modern classic praised without cease. And for good reason - despite the high difficulty - for most it takes a hundred+ hours until their first win - it's very easy to play FTL for hours on end. Even after a decade the control scheme and interface feel fresh and snappy, the soundtrack remains immersive - going from soothing to playful to blood-pumpingly intense with an almost sentient sense of place. Even if you're used to WASD 3rd person games or platformers or what have you, you'll get used to clicking around and pausing and carefully deciding where to send your crew and what to target in no time.

Performance: Flawless. Stays at a constant RAM consumption of around 500 mb. CPU activity is similarly constant at around 15%.

Replayabiltiy: Very, very easy to sink your teeth in for hours.

Into The Breach (2018)

Another strategy game from the same guys that did FTL. Just as brutal, but in a different direction - while real-time crew management simulator FTL had you adapt to chaotic situations on the fly, turn-based isometric grid mecha strategy Into The Breach is all about seeking a single optimal path. Compared to the nigh infinite possibilities of FTL, Into The Breach is deceptively small, yet everything feels just right - there's not too many or too few mechs to unlock, the stages let you get used to them without overwhelming you. The soundtrack is just a tad bit more timid than FTL's, but is a banger nonetheless.

Performance: Flawless. Identical to FTL.

Replayability:Perhaps less replayable than FTL, but will occupy dozens of hours nonetheless.

Deus Ex (2000)

Another classic of gaming. Despite the clunky controls and VERY outdated (yet charming) graphics the game is very interesting to play through. For a game this old, there's so much interactivity and hidden stuff that I couldn't really believe the game is 25 years old when I noticed some of it. The politics of the game do, at times, feel tacky and paint-by-numbers, but that feeling is always quickly overshadowed by later plot developments. Perhaps one of the best ambient game soundtracks I know.

Performance: Played with Wine. Perhaps owed to the age of the game, it runs flawlessly with negligible CPU and RAM activity.

Replayability: Not really as replayable, due to being a story-driven game, but it does take ~25 hours to beat. Plenty of meat to chew through.

Balatro (2024)

Notorious giver of addictions and devourer of your free time. Despite the roguelike deckbuilder genre being overdone in the past few years to the point of memeability, Balatro gives a very fresh spin, being a more straightforward parallel to poker without all the bells and whistles of other roguelike deckbuilders. The game rarely feels frustrating, and makes you feel like an invincible god of scoring poker hands just often enough that it scratches the itch without feeling too easy.

Performance: It's honestly really surprising that a 2024 game runs this good on old hardware. Not ideal - the CPU and RAM demands are a tad higher than FTL - but still very good.

Replayability: Nigh infinite. The Balatro addiction is a meme for a reason.

Darkest Dungeon (2016)

This roguelike was pretty popular a few years back; not so much in the 2020s, even with the release of its awaited sequel. Famously brutal and gritty. As a teenager I didn't really know what I was doing or understand the turn based combat, but now I enjoy it greatly. The soundtrack is nothing to write home about, but does its job well, and the plot is pretty utilitarian, but the general atmosphere is on point.

Performance: Runs very well - RAM consumption goes up to ~1 GB at launch and hovers around that mark. I was very surprised, considering my other, more powerful laptop was struggling to run it.

Replayability: Plentiful. Much slower paced than the roguelikes above and as such not as easy to kill time with.