In the past, the PC was the thinking person’s video game machine. There, you’d find deep, strategy games, such as Civilization or StarCraft, or groundbreaking first-person shooters, such as Doom or Half-Life. For flashy and fleeting action games, you played at the arcade or on console. Fortunately, you can now play any game type on the personal computer. Today’s top PC games include action-packed hits.
The action genre is surprisingly tricky to define. Action games contain a lot of combat, but they’re aren’t fighting games or beat ‘em ups. An “action-adventure” game may have narrative, exploration, or puzzle-solving elements, but too many tip the title into the role-playing game or adventure game territories. It’s more than a little subjective.
Video game genres are more fluid than ever, but for this list we focused on the PC games that best prioritize action-packed thrills above all else. Here are the best PC action games that you should download right now.
