The lines are blurry, and more than a little subjective. An “action-adventure” game may have narrative, exploration, or puzzle-solving elements, but too many tips the title into the role-playing game or adventure game territories. Action games contain a lot of combat, but they aren’t quite fighting games or beat ‘em ups. The action genre is surprisingly tricky to define. Today’s top PC games include action-packed hits. Fortunately, you can now play pretty much anything you could want on a personal computer. For flashy action games, you played at the arcade or on console. There, you’d find deep strategy games, such as Civilization or StarCraft, or groundbreaking first-person shooters, such as Doom or Half-Life.
Once upon a time, the PC was the thinking person’s video game platform.
