Not gonna lie that is my favorite type of game as well, DeusEx being my No1. game of all time. But those games are so rare. I never had any interest in stalker though, tried one of them and it did nothing for me. From recent times the games that fit the bill are Metro Exodus, Terminator Resistance and Cyberpunk 2077.
From the 2010s, the deusex reboot games, which I know aren't supposed to be reboots, but that is the only way they make sense to me, so in my head canon those are in a different universe than the og.
Also in the immersive sim category Alpha Protocol and Alien Isolation are great. And Dishonored 1-2 but those are a mix of steampunk and fantasy, so might be borderline for you. And a definite maybe is Fallout 4.
Yeah, the Deus Ex series is one of my top of all time too. I think the prequel sortof makes sense. In the beginning of the origninal they do talk a lot about the old augments which were mechanical (referring to the people who have them as hanzers if I recall), but that the new augments were like nanotechnology or something. I can't remember. It fits for me, with Human Revolution and Mankind Divided being prequels.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R really is at the top of the list for me thogh. (Shadow of Chernobyl was good, but RPG/inventory elements weren't completely finished. Clear Sky was mechanically better, but the story and factions were boring as all hell. Call of Pripyat was by far the best of the series. There was a mod online called "The Lost Alpha" which merged all of the maps from all three titles, plus a ton of maps and content from an alpha version of th egame that were never originally finished into one
massive open world experience. It was thoroughly enjoyable, but it winds up being completely unstructured. You just kind of roam and pick up side quests and stuff.
I tried playing Invisible War, but it was so bad I lost interest.
Cyberpunk 2077 got a lot of well deserved flak due to its rough launch, but in the state it was during my play through in late 2021 it was quite good. And the story was among the best in the last decade, IMHO.
I'll have to try Terminator Resistance. That one was not on my radar.
Yeah, I did play Dishonored 1 & 2 (but never the #2 expansion, Death of the Outsider, it's in my backlog) during a dry spell. The magic/satanic ritual/whatever stuff was a little much for me.
I've also played through Fallout 3, NV and 4. I kind of liked them, but the goofy 50s theme was a little much for me. I prefer my titles gritty.
I pretty much enjoy all the titles you mentioned, except Terminator, Alpha Protocol and Alien Isolation which I am not familiar with.
I used to really like the Far Cry franchise (from 2 and on) but the game mechanics of single handedly capturing a base over and over again in different geographic locations got a little old.
I also enjoyed the Bioshock series (though admittedly suspense of disbelief was a little much for me)
There are a few others I enjoyed too. Singularity had a really good story, (but rather short) The Outer Worlds was fun (but a little too goofy, again gritty and realistic would have been better). Prey (2017) was an aesthetic masterpiece and illustrated the loneliness of space. Really good (as long as you are not expecting the same game as the 2006 game Prey, which is completely different.
I did play through most of the Borderland series. They got me through a gaming dry-spell, but they weren't really my favorites. Similarly with the Wolfenstein reboot (The New Order, The Old Blood, The New Colossus, Youngblood.) While they weren't perfect fits for me, I kind of enjoyed The New Order and the New Colossus, but the rest were kind of meh. Crysis Remastered was kind of the same. I never really played the original, and wasn't expecting much, but it was a good distraction.
Right now I am playing through Dying Light 2, and it is a good title. I tend to like a little more shooting, but I am still enjoying it. It is a worthy successor to the first one, which was a good game as well.
In the "Favorites of the last 20 years" list for me it is probably:
1.) S.T.A.L.K.E.R series
2.) Deus Ex series
3.) Cyberpunk 2077
4.) Metro Series
5.) Dying Light series
Those are the only ones that are true top candidates for me. Then there are the bunch of "decent games, but not epic toplist worthy":
- Far Cry 2, 3, 4, Primal, 5 and maybe 6, but it wasn't as good as the rest. Series peaked at 3 or 4 though.
- Fallout 3, NV and 4
- Bioshock Series
- Singularity
- Prey (2017)
- The Outer Worlds
- Dishonored Series
Then there is the "playable but really not my scene" list of games I enjoyed enough to finish, but really just played to fill time between other releases:
- Wolfenstein Reboot (The New Order and the New Colossus only)
- Portal Series
- Crysis Remastered
- Borderlands series
- Doom (2016). I finished it. I made myself. But I was getting really bored.
I intentionally excluded older titles (Like the Half Life series) from this, as they are really from another era.
I used to also play a **** ton of Counter-Strike, but I rarely do anymore. Occasionally I'll pop in to see if I've still got it. Sometimes the answer is yes, and sometimes it is definitely no.
Red Orchestra and Red Orchestra 2 are also huge multiplayer favorites, but it is tough to find a full server anymore, which is sad :/
Oh, and when I am in dry spells without other titles to play, I'll always start a game or two of whatever the latest version of Sid Meier's Civilization is.
But yeah, that's my gaming in a nutshell for the last 20 years or so.
