11 games from the best video games categories

Video games come in a dizzying array of styles and gameplay experiences. Over the decades, different genres have emerged, each offering its own flavor of interaction and gameplay experience. Knowing the types of games helps players understand what kinds of challenges and experiences the game will offer at a glance. In this article, we'll explore the most popular and widespread video game genres and subgenres and highlight some notable examples of each.

Types of video games

Knowing the types of video games helps in classifying them according to the gameplay and techniques used, but games often mix many genres together into one classification. The classifications basically work to give players a general idea of the strengths of the game that suit their tastes. Also, by understanding the different genres, players can discover new games specifically designed to suit their preferences more clearly and interactively.

1- Adventure games

Adventure games focus on story, exploration, and puzzle solving. They are one of the most popular and exciting types of video games, as they focus on story and the player's interaction with their virtual environment. These games often involve exploring fictional or realistic worlds, solving puzzles, interacting with different characters, and performing specific tasks to achieve certain goals. During the game, players encounter situations and experiences that make them feel like they are part of the story.

Among the most famous adventure games are the Assassin's Creed series, The Legend of Zelda, and Tomb Raider. These games were able to provide the best adventure video game experiences thanks to the exciting stories and distinctive artistic design of the game. Adventure games include sub-categories of games, which are:

1- Stealth Games

Stealth games are a type of video game that involves stealth and infiltration to avoid enemies and perform specific tasks rather than directly confronting them. Players in these games must use intelligence, planning, and special skills to navigate the game environment without being detected. These games focus heavily on strategy and patience to reach the goal.

Metal Gear Solid

2- Hack and Slash fighting games

Hack and Slash video games rely on close and fast combat using melee weapons such as swords and axes. These games are characterized by a focus on continuous combat against large numbers of enemies, while presenting a style of play that requires high skills in controlling the players' performance and the time used in combat.

3- Survival Horror Games

Survival Horror games are a type of video game that focuses on creating an atmosphere of psychological horror and tension, where the player is in a hostile and dangerous environment with limited resources of food and drink and must use them wisely and make difficult and dangerous decisions to survive. These games are usually characterized by a dark atmosphere and exciting stories that keep players in a state of constant anxiety and tension.

Devil May Cry

Top 3 Survival Horror Games

Resident Evil: The most famous horror and survival games, and its events revolve around the spread of a virus that turns people into zombies.
Silent Hill: Set in the mysterious city of Silent Hill, players face nightmares and terrifying secrets. The game is known for its complex stories and terrifying psychological atmosphere.
The Last of Us: Set in a post-apocalyptic world, players must survive against hostile humans and creatures infected with a deadly fungal infection.

4- Open World Games

Open World Games are a type of video game that offers players great freedom to explore and interact with the virtual world in different ways, away from the traditional restrictions of games that follow a specific path. These games allow players to move through large environments, interact with other characters in the game, perform side quests, and play roles based on their personal desires, which increases the fun of the game.

Top 3 Open World Games

Grand Theft Auto V (GTA V)
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

The Witcher 3- Wild Hunt

2- Action games

Action games are one of the most popular and exciting genres of video games and are characterized by providing experiences full of fast-paced action, exciting battles, and risky missions. These games are designed to provide a different gaming experience that stimulates adrenaline and tests players' reactions and decision-making speed. The games focus mainly on motor skills, physical challenges, and combat battles, whether individual or group, in diverse environments from modern cities to fantasy worlds.

Video games in general and action games in particular are characterized by multiple elements that make them more attractive to players, including the quality of graphics and strong sound effects that increase the enthusiasm of players and make them engage in the game as if they are part of it, in addition to exciting stories that link events together and encourage players to reach the end. These games allow players to control main characters who can perform various movements such as running, jumping, climbing, and using different weapons. Action games often merge with other types of games such as adventure games, tactical games, and strategy games, which increases their complexity and depth. Action games fall under several classifications, which are:

Shooting games:

Shooting games are one of the most popular types of video games under the action category, focusing on shooting skill and aiming accuracy. These games provide intense experiences that include exciting battles, where success requires quick wit and improvisation of effective strategies. Shooting games allow players to use a variety of weapons and techniques to confront multiple enemies in different environments.

Top Down View Games

The most famous types of shooting games

First Person Shooter (FPS)
TPS Third Person Shooter
Side-scrolling video games
Top-Down View Games
Rail Shooter
Tactical Shooter Games
Classic Shoot'em Up Games

MMOFPS Games

MMOFPS (Massively Multiplayer Online First-Person Shooter) games are video games that combine elements of first-person shooters and online multiplayer games. In these games, a large number of players are present in the same virtual environment, providing large and exciting group battle experiences.

MMOFPS games feature huge environments, high-quality graphics, and advanced customization systems that allow players to customize their characters and weapons. They also offer regular updates and new additions to improve the gaming experience and provide new challenges to players, making them the most searched video games among players.

MMOFPS

3- Sports

Sports video games are popular video games that simulate various real sports, such as football, basketball, tennis, and car racing. These games focus on providing realistic and dynamic experiences that reflect the laws and techniques of sports within the game.

Sports video games feature detailed graphics and advanced control systems that allow players to experience the realism of their favorite sport. These games include multiple game modes such as single matches, tournaments, and online competitive modes that allow players to compete with their friends or players from all over the world.

1- Racing games

Racing games focus on the experience of speed and challenge, as players compete in races across a variety of cars and bikes. These video games feature realistic graphics and advanced control methods that provide an exciting driving experience.

Popular racing game types:

Realistic Racing Games: Gran Turismo – Forza Motorsport
Arcade Racing Games: Need for Speed – Burnout
Off-Road Racing Games: Dirt – WRC

Need for Speed - Burnout

2- Football Games

Football games in the world of video games simulate the experience of playing in real stadiums, where players compete in football matches with precise details and rules similar to the real sport. These games feature realistic graphics, smooth control, and various game modes that allow players to control their teams or play with friends.

4- Wrestling and fighting games

Wrestling and fighting games are video games that focus on exciting fighting experiences, where players can control different characters to compete in violent physical battles or wrestling. These games feature amazing moves, diverse fighting techniques, and exciting stories that add depth to the gaming experience.

The most popular types of wrestling and fighting games

Wrestling Games: WWE 2K
Direct fighting games: Street Fighter – Mortal Kombat
Mixed Martial Arts Games: UFC – EA Sports MMA

WWE 2K

5- Simulation games

Simulation games are video games that aim to replicate and experience reality or fictional scenarios accurately, allowing players to experience a variety of activities and circumstances in a realistic way. These games include multiple experiences such as business management, city building, or even simulating daily life.

1- Vehicle simulation games

spaceships games
Flight Simulator Games
Train Simulator Games

2- Virtual reality simulation games

Beat Saber
Half-Life: Alyx
Superhot VR

3- City simulation games

SimCity
Cities: Skylines
Tropic

Beat Saber

6- Role-playing games (RPGs)

Role-playing games (RPGs) are video games that provide deep gameplay experiences where players control characters within fictional or realistic worlds, and make decisions that affect the progress of the story and the development of characters. These games allow players to explore an open world, complete quests, and participate in battles, while customizing their characters and developing their skills.

RPGs feature a character progression system, where players can improve their abilities and gain new skills based on their choices and actions, and include elements of complex stories and interactive conversations that affect the course of the game.

Common types of RPG games:

Traditional RPGs: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Final Fantasy
Interactive RPG Games: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Mass Effect
Action RPG Games:Diablo – Path of Exile

Diablo - Path of Exile

7- Science Fiction games

Science fiction video games offer experiences full of innovation and modern and advanced technology, as players explore future or parallel worlds that include fictional technologies and unrealistic events. These games are characterized by their focus on futuristic elements, time or space travel, and interactions with aliens or robots.

Science fiction games feature creative designs and complex stories that deal with topics such as advanced technology, mysterious universes, and time transitions. They also provide immersive experiences that reflect an exciting vision of the future and allow players to dive into unlimited adventures.

Top 3 Sci-Fi Games

Mass Effect
The Outer Worlds
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

The Outer Worlds

8- Fantasy games

Fantasy games place players in imaginary worlds filled with magic and mythical creatures, where they travel through stunning environments and embark on unrealistic adventures. Fantasy-based video games feature rich stories and magical elements such as dragons, wizards, and legendary heroes, which add to the fun and excitement of the game.

Top 3 Fantasy Game Types

Fantasy RPGs: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Final Fantasy
Fantasy Action Adventure Games: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Dark Souls
Fantasy Strategy Games: Heroes of Might and Magic – Total War: Warhammer

9- Strategy games

Strategy games focus on planning and making tactical decisions to achieve specific goals. These games require video games to analyze situations with a strategic mind, manage resources, and coordinate activities to achieve success. Strategy games can be either real-time or turn-based.

Strategy games feature experiences that involve deep thinking and assessing risks and opportunities, which enhance interaction and challenge and include elements such as building empires, managing armies, and achieving long-term goals.

Total War - Warhammer

The most popular types of strategy games:

Real-time strategy (RTS) games: StarCraft – Age of Empires
Turn-Based Strategy Games (TBS): Civilization – XCOM
Military Strategy Games: Total War – Company of Heroes
MOBA Action Strategy Games: League of Legends – Dota 2 – Heroes of the Storm

10- Massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG)

MMORPGs allow thousands of players to simultaneously inhabit vast, open-world fantasy worlds together online. Players customize characters, team up to quest, raid dungeons, and engage in massive PvP battles. RPGs are a form of gaming in which players take on characters in a fictional setting, controlling the character's actions either through narrative, real-world actions, or through a decision-making and character development system that contains rules that define the general framework of characters, available actions, and when these actions succeed or fail.

Players embody the actions of their characters themselves, i.e. physically in a natural or semi-natural setting. Players assume their roles in an imaginary world and interact with each other and abide by organized laws or the instructions of an organized person or persons. These games began to spread and became the most powerful video games.

MMORPG

11- Platform games

Platformer games are a genre of video games in which the player guides a character through various levels filled with obstacles and challenges, with an emphasis on jumping and navigating between platforms. These games feature simple and fun gameplay, and often include elements of puzzle solving and exploring environments.

Top 3 Types of Platform Games

Classic Platform Games: Super Mario Bros
Modern Platform Games: Celeste
2D Platformer Games: Hollow Knight

In this article, we have presented a huge collection of video games as a vital part of the global entertainment culture, offering diverse experiences that cater to different tastes and interests. Game classifications, whether action, adventure, sports, strategy, or role-playing, play an important role in determining the type of experience that players will get.

Masrawy Sat

11 games from the best video games categories