Father of the actionRPG genre, with dark fantasy elements. Featured randomly generated dungeons. I loved the dark atmosphere and music. A rare game that I played not just on PC, but on Playstation too. Luckily, Diablo is still playable on PC, you can buy it DRM-free on GOG and on Linux you can use Devilution. Many games wouldn't exist without Blizzard's masterpiece.

I don't have much memory about this one, but it was cool to see 3D animals, environments and others, and not having to deal with brown shit on your screen (aka Quake). This video is from the remastered version:

You can buy it on GOG!

Older people remember the 70s and their American TV shows. Interstate 76 made in that style. The game is entirely focused on vehicle combat, with on car guns or with handguns. Yes, in 1997 we could shoot out from the car with a handgun. The game also features stylish cutscenes, and nice voice acting. The game's story plays in an alternate 1976, where the oil crisis was never resolved. You can drive through big lands and doing missions. The game used Mechwarrior 2's engine, heavily modified by the developers.

Here is the intro:

Overall, very unique game. We were still in the beginning of 3D stuff, people trying to figure out how to do it (you will see plenty of 2D stuff on this list). If you are interested buy Interstate '76 on GOG…

Staying with cars, NFS 2 is also 25 years old. Sadly nowhere near good as the first game in the series, this game series also made their 3D debut, with many famous cars, driveable. I think it was undrivable shit, but it came out with an expansion pack, so it sold well. I wasn't impressed, but luckily NFS rebound very well after that.

A niche adventure game, but with some unique features, with some real-time action and beautiful art style. Meaning if you are too late to do stuff, the story can go into a different direction. Again, back in 1997, this was amazing. First person adventure, on the Orient Express - the last one before World War I. It sold enough that later made its debut on iOS and Android too.

My personal favorite from this year, definitely top 5. The heart and soul of LucasArts in this game. From the animated cutscenes, the spaghetti western atmosphere, the voice acting, the amazing music and the 90s level design. One of the best first person shooter ever made. Period.

There are not too many levels, but every level ends with a "boss fight", and there is a cutscene between them. If you are a fan of spaghetti western, this is a must play of any age and any time. Here is the intro:

While it used the already dated Dark Forces engine, there are some gameplay stuff, that features as first: reload of gun, and single bullett reload, and even a sniper rifle (although I am not sure about it as first). It adds to the amazing atmosphere, and tactical gameplay.

Just play it! Buy it Outlaws on GOG! (includes the mission pack)

Staying with LucasArts, here is the many installments of the X-Wing and Tie Fighter series, except with MULTIPLAYER! Primarily made for online play (but you can play it alone). Sadly I never had the chance to play this one.

Buy Star Wars: X-Wing vs TIE Fighter on GOG!

This is one of the most interesting title of 1997 for me personally. Originally I disliked the game, cause it was too freightening, and I never liked horror as a genre. Almost 25 years later, around 2020 I started playing it and I love it! Thanks for civvie11 to reintroduce me to this wonderful first person shooter!

It's basic revenge story, but with such an atmosphere and the weapons are good selling point. It's like being in a horror-action movie, blowing stuff up and laughing maniacly sometimes. Kudos to Caleb's voice actor, simple amazing. Only more amazing are the weapons: pitchfork, flaire gun, double barrel shotgun (finest in fps land), tommy gun, dynamite (with multiple mode of use), and many more…

All of this is on the build engine, utilizing vertical level making, and blowing the environment up. Blood spawned 2 expansion packs, and to this day people are creating levels and all kinds of mods for it. Blood is just a nice package overall, with excellent levels (like Carnival), sound effects, weapons (all of them are useful and satisfying to use).

Blood is better than 99.9% of first person shooters from the past 10-15 years. Blood: Fresh Supply is available on GOG, which includes the original DOS version of the game via DOSbox, and remastered by Nightdive Studios. While the remastered version is patched after a very roughed start, I think playing Blood is still better via BuildGDX source port (former BloodGDX).

Going from spacewars to fps to third person goodies! MDK is a very unique first person game, both technically and gameplay. A janitor goes against aliens to save Earth! Shiny Entertainment created a masterpiece with humor, amazing music, silly tech and just overall care, that's increasingly missing from today's game industry.

We only have six missions, no saves during it. Every mission starts by coming from the sky and picking up useful stuff, while dodging enemy missiles. After landing we have a giant level to finish vs alien tanks, monsters and other weird shit. Huge levels, with sniper mode and silly items like the world smallest nuke, and others. Humor is excellent.

Technically our avatar is 2D, but everything else is 3D from the map, and enemies, items, etc. Gliding is so much fun and 2 decades before Batman did it in his own games, haha. We can also do some snowboarding sometimes, which is also fun.

MDK was ahead of its time. A must play! Luckily we have GOG to buy it!