The best multiplayer games on PC

OVERWATCH

OVERWATCH

Like you didn't already know. Like you haven't been playing it compulsively since it released. Like the world of PC gaming hasn't become awash with Tracer fan art and play of the game GIFs. Overwatch is a phenomenon, and the class-based multiplayer shooter's still in its infancy.

There are people who compare it to Team Fortress 2. There are other people who compare it to League Of Legends. And they're both right: Overwatch owes much to TF2's art style, payload maps and asymmetrical combat. It owes a lot to LoL's diverse roster and essential teamplay, too. The resulting blend of popular multiplayer styles, ripe with possibilities, has captured the imaginations and evenings of the masses. That much is apparent from even a cursory visit to the fantastically busy Overwatch reddit page, where you'll certainly never go hungry for GIFs. Blizzard are also adding to their roster, with Ana and Sombra already out and more on rumoured to join them.

CS:GO

CS:GO

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s is an underwhelming origin story. A refresh of Valve’s previous refresh of a Half-Life 1 mod, it was conceived as nothing more ambitious than a console port; an experiment to see if PlayStation and Xbox gamers would engage with the Counter-Strike name.  And if PC players fancied another few rounds of de_dust2 while they were at it, what’s the harm?

As it turns out, we did want those few rounds. Then a few more. Then some rounds on all the other maps we all now know like the back of our hands, having stalked their corridors and doorways in their various forms for over a decade.

Valve and Hidden Path brought a sleeping giant out of its slumber, and in the years since its release in 2012 have positioned it at the very centre of PC gaming. It’s now one of the most played games on Steam day in, day out. Its weapon skins support an entire cottage industry of trading and betting sites. It’s an ultra-competitive, high prize pool eSport. You can’t move on Twitch for CS:GO streams.

Its popularity is self-evident, but its quality requires a deeper understanding of its appeal both as a nostalgia trip and a well-supported, pacey shooter with state-of-the-art spectator tools. Put simply: it’s the multiplayer game we’ve loved for years, dressed up in fashionable new clothes. Ripe with tactical exploitation, bristling with razor-sharp weapon feedback, and comforting like mama's homemade apple pie.

PLAYERUNKOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS

Playerunkown’s Battlegrounds

The battle royale genre has been knocking about since Brendan Greene, or Playerunknown as he’s best known, released the Battle Royale mod for Arma 2 and 3. He also chipped in with the development of H1Z1: King of the Kill. That makes him the father of this emerging genre, and as you might have guessed, Playerunkown’s Battlegrounds is his baby. It’s the battle royale premise boiled down to the bare essentials: 100 players drop into a giant map with nothing but their underwear, scour the map for guns and gear while duking it out until only one of them is left alive. Oh, and there’s a gigantic electrical field slowly closing in around the map to force players into confrontation.

The clincher is that Playerunkown’s Battlegrounds serves the simple thrill of a battle royale scenario without either over-egging the situation with overblown weapons and features, or bogging it down with clunky interfaces and features. It’s still in Early Access, but unlike its ilk, it doesn’t feel like it is. Like the Arma mod that spawned it, the gunplay feels spot on, but it’s also got dozens of features that make it easier to play: the minimap is brilliantly clear, you can check it and add markers to it while running, pick up items from the ground by hitting tab and dragging and dropping the bits you want over to your character. There’s good reason for Playerunkown’s Battlegrounds popularity on Twitch: it’s everything battle royale fans have been waiting for in a game.

LEAGUE OF LEGENDS

League of Legends/DOTA2

Whatever it is you're looking for in a multiplayer game, the MOBA genre, and these pair of juggernauts in particular, probably covers it. You can go in solo to prove your superiority over others, honing your skills in whatever role you prefer to always try to win. You can play more casually with friends, making it your regular multiplayer home, either in the standard 5v5 modes or playing one of several custom games that are always available. Whether you want to be the best in the world - good luck - or just bash about in well designed systems, there's something there.

It can go far beyond that too, where for the hardcore these games have become lifestyles. There are massive industries around the professional scenes of both, huge tournaments to attend as spectators or players, and millions upon millions of dollars on the line for the very best. Valve, Riot and their communities have built entire ecosystems of player support, team management, spectating and shoutcasting around these games, and if you want to you'll always find something new to discuss, try, or improve at.

Picking between them is all personal preference. League of Legends has more players and better defined roles and rules, while Dota 2 is a Wild West of edge cases, madly powerful abilities and stranger hero concepts. Try them both and, based on their player counts alone, there's a high chance you’ll fall in love with one.