Probably one of the few games to accurately capture the conspiracy theory mindset, and how that connects with people who feel powerless in the wake of massive systemic inequality - and how people grapple onto them even if they don't make a lick of sense under any sort of scrutiny. But then it also imagines a scenario where pretty much every single conspiracy theory is true - and expands that out into a globe-trotting, action-packed adventure, like a strange power-fantasy where you know what's going wrong in the world - and the disparities themselves absolutely become crystal clear. Gameplay is tight as hell but the story itself is just amazing, especially with the depth it goes into - as well as how it's heavily reflective of real-world fears and anxieties of the world turning into a corporate hellhole where all the power lies within the pockets of a few powerful people.

Also you can make the entire of UNATCO flip out and engage in an all out assault on an automatic vacuum cleaner. Good game.

This is possibly the king of obscure games. That's not because it’s the most obscure game ever made, but because its completely bizarre presentation encapsulates what’s great about niche titles. To oversimplify it, it’s essentially a total conversion mod of Half Life 2 that's mixed with Warhammer 40K fan fiction. Being built off of Half Life 2 can make it feel cheap, but leveraging the Source engine’s physics to emphasize the power of your cyber-augmented character was a smart decision. You slowly become more and more hilariously overpowered with each new ability, eventually being able to jump over buildings and sprint as fast as a car, so having weight and impact was critical to making progress rewarding. If you can stay interested in the game long enough to unlock those abilities, you’ll definitely have a fun time. However, the game is so dark and so narratively confusing that I think most people will drop out before it gets the chance to shine. Playing it co-op certainly helps, but this has its own issues with the way mission progress is saved only to the host. Your character progress is saved regardless, but repeatedly losing direct progression is demoralizing. So, the highs of maxing out your abilities are fairly equally matched with the lows of losing progress and parts that drag. If your desire to play as a godlike space marine is strong enough to withstand even the clunkiest level design though, you should give this game a try, because there isn't any other game out there that does it quite as well.