Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six® Vegas

IMPORTANT, play it on the normal difficulty, it might be a bit easy, but realistic is damn unfair. This is a game I really enjoyed when it came out, but I never quite finished and I didn't remember why. Well, I finally tackled this game 20 years later (oh god, realtime realization). It is a cover shooter of its time, not the best, but so unique in its execution, that besides the sequel, I dont think there is a similar game on the market. This is a clearly rushed or underfunded game, because when it works, it just clicks so well and for most of the time, its just a fair bit janky. There are bad covers, blocked pathing, hitscanners, bad/horrible checkpoints, sompletely missable resuply boxes, cheap ambushes, a turd of a cliffhanger, bugs... and yet, I love this game. It just feels bulky, physical, action packed (even if bad most of the time), but it has its moments and they just click. Mind you, this is not a glowing recommendation, but if you get it for 5€, its a good time.

I recently bought this on sale, as I loved it as a kid on my Xbox, and it’s honestly insane how well it still holds up. The graphics are a little dated in terms of texture quality, but otherwise they still look surprisingly good. The gameplay is far superior to many modern FPS games: enemies actively try to flank you, and your squadmates are genuinely useful. The official multiplayer is dead, but there are mod-based workarounds, although I haven’t tried those myself. Lastly, the game runs like a dream on the Steam Deck. If you want a fun, fairly difficult romp with lots of weapon variety and a decent story, this game is an absolute steal.