Apple macOS

Apple's macOS (formerly known as Mac OS X, then just OS X), is an operating system that powers their Macintosh (or simply Mac) computer line.

This article is a stub. You can help /v/'s Recommended Games by expanding it.

For emulators, see macOS emulators and Emulators on macOS.

"It just works."

It is the successor to the "classic" Mac OS system that powered the Macs from 1984 to 2001, although technically it's based on the Unix-derived NeXTSTEP.

Macs are known for their ease of use, stylish design, and steep prices. They are adored by video editors, graphic designers, and soy-latte-guzzling hipsters. But be warned that the Mac is not an ideal platform for gaming; while many major titles do get a Mac version, its library is quite limited next to Windows, and the transition to ARM processors broke compatibility with a ton of older titles. You can use Wine (or its user-friendly commercial version, CrossOver) to run Windows games, but then you are on your own; unlike Linux, there is no SteamPlay-style automatic solution.

The list

IMPORTANT NOTES:

Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard" (10/2007) removed the Classic Environment that ran programs made for pre-X Mac OS.
Mac OS X 10.7 "Lion" (06/2011) removed the Rosetta emulator that ran programs made for PowerPC processors on x86-based Macs.
macOS 10.15 "Catalina" (10/2019) removed compatibility with 32-bit-only programs. See this 32-bit game list.
macOS 11 "Big Sur" (11/2020) and later have a built-in emulator, Rosetta 2, to run x86-64 programs on ARM-based Apple Silicon processors. Compatibility is good but not perfect. See this M1 games list.

Title	Genre	Year Released	Description	Where to acquire
Aquaria	Metroidvania	2007	Massive award-winning indie title created by Spelunky programmer Derek Yu and Crayon Physics Deluxe composer Alec Holowka. Aquaria features huge underwater environments with an emphasis on exploration, challenging-but-not-stupid boss battles and an absolutely phenomenal soundtrack. Before you ask: yes, there is a nude mod. An absolute must-have for any Metroidvania fan.	Ambrosia
Baldur's Gate	RPG	1998	Role playing game based on the D&D universe; great story and characters, you have control over a party up to six heroes, and well, it's one of the best RPGs of all time.	GOG Steam
Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn	RPG	2000	You control a party of 6 characters, each with their own extensive personalities. If you carry both Good and Evil NPCs in the same group, or if you heckle them, they will often leave or try to kill you/each other. High charisma generally avoids more extreme reactions, however. D&D rules are in effect, giving you the option to choose from almost any fantasy class or multi-class. A pause feature allows for perfect management of the 6 (or fewer) characters in your control. There are well over 100 different spells and 20 levels in the original, and more in the expansion.	GOG Steam
Battle Bears -1	Shooter	2011	A third-person shooter where you control bears, shooting other bears in space. Contains the 3 campaigns from he iPhone/iPad/Adroid version, but with better graphics and mouse and keboard control. Currently free on the Mac App Store, also avaible on iOS and Android.	App Store
Broforce	Platformer	2015	Testosterone: the video game! They got all the great heroes from the manliest action movies ever, and put them together in a crazy tough 2D platformer where pretty much everything is explodable.	Humble Steam
Cities: Skylines	Simulation	2015	Love Sim City? Looking for something that was not ruined by developer incompetence and publisher greed? Say no more.	Steam
Cortex Command	Action RTS	2008	A crazy RTS-like-side-scrolling 2-dimensional game in which your objective is to defend your brain by controlling an army of hivemind robots. You manually control a single robot at a time but can freely switch bodies at any moment. Features a campaign (unfinished) and split screen co-op with up to four players, in which you must defend your brain for as long as possible. Also boasts a massive amount of mods which add new weapons and levels. Has an active modding community linked in the main site, but beware, they're the most cancerous forumites you'll meet.	Steam
Costume Quest	Adventure / RPG	2011	Note: Best played around Halloween. You play as a kid trying to rescue your sibling kidnapped by troll-like monsters. However, this game has a nostalgic childhood-like feel to it. The dialogue, the attitudes, along with the general humor and plot can really take you back. In dealing with obstacles, you find, build, and use costumes and their abilities to proceed, such as a light-up toy sword to scare away darkness phantoms. The battles are a little simple, but play well enough and are rather cute and silly, being hilariously exaggerated through imagination. The game is a little short, but the DLC expansion chapter (which is included with the PC version) rounds it out nicely.	Steam
Crusader Kings II	Grand Strategy	2012	Crusader Kings II lets you play as a historic European Dynasty and lead them from the Norman conquest of England in 1066 to the fall of Constantinople in 1453. Through war, strategic marriages, incest, intrigue, and crusades you will expand your demesne and secure your Dynasty's future in the tumultuous Medieval Era. CK II has many pieces of DLC but the 4 major expansions are Sword of Islam (Allows playable Muslims), Legacy of Rome (Makes the Byzantium Empire much more unique to play as), The Republic (playable Merchant Republics and new trade mechanics) and The Old Gods (Adds a new 867 start date, playable pagans, and numerous game play mechanics like the ability to raid).	Steam
DEFCON: Everybody Dies	RTS	2006	A very well-done independent RTS based around just what its name suggests: Nuclear War. The player strategically places (can't stress how important planning is here) units like radar stations, naval fleets, and - most importantly - missile silos, then engages in at first conventional warfare and then global thermonuclear war. Get the upper hand by destroying your opponents' military capability, and win by inflicting the most megadeaths - civilian deaths, in millions - relative to megadeaths suffered. Deeply atmospheric, even with only simple 1980s-command-center-style vector graphics. Also has a pretty active Steam group named DefconNukan, so if you ever have an itch for a game, go there.	GOG Steam
Dungeon Keeper	RTS	1997	Dungeon Keeper is a strategy video game released for the PC in which the player attempts to build and manage a dungeon or lair while protecting it from (computer-controlled) 'hero' characters intent on stealing the user's accumulated treasures and killing various monsters.	GOG
Dust: An Elysian Tail	Platformer / Action-RPG	2013	A furry amnesiac warrior wielding a magical talking sword and his little flying sprite companion wander a fantasy world to stop a genocidal army. An indie 2D platformer with RPG and beat 'em up elements. Stunning painted backgrounds, top notch animation, great voice acting, and above all, absurdly fun to play (be sure to use a good gamepad). Particularly impressive because it was just one guy who did all the design, coding, graphics, animated cutscenes, and most of the writing.	Humble Steam
Dustforce	Platformer	2012	Very challenging and lesser-known platformer that draws obvious Super Meat Boy parallels with its wall-sliding action, online replay feature, and focus on speedrunning. This time there's dust on every surface, dust on rabid wild animals, and you've got to clean that shit up. Doing so while getting the highest rank in each level is crazy hard and technical. Don't miss out on the amazing sprite art or music, either.	Steam
Dwarf Fortress	Sim	2006 (initial) 2012 (current)	Comes with 2 game modes: Fortress mode where you set off with a bunch of dwarves to make your fort in the wilderness, and Adventurer: A roguelike with no purpose(yet). Addictive gameplay, very in depth damage system(even keeps track of how much damage each FINGER receives), and a game so confusing to newcomers it is recommended to read MagmaWiki thoroughly before playing, or watch the tutorial videos like 51ppycup's YouTube. It's definitely the most complex game you've ever played, and probably the most complex game you will ever play. It's worth the endeavor though.	Official site
Empire: Total War	Strategy	2009	Empire Total War is a mixture of Real Time Strategy and Turn Based Strategy. In campaign mode, you play as one of 13 or so major nations starting at the year 1700. From there you manage economy, build improvements, be diplomatic, and attack people. When you attack, it switches to a RTS, with the troops you have at your disposal. Unfortunately, it's plagued with a shit load of bugs, even after The Creative Assembly released THREE goddamn patches. Interesting game, but don't start here, go for Medieval, or Rome first. Tip: Don't buy it as a single game but rather in the bundle with Napoleon: Total War for the same price.	Steam
Escape Velocity Nova	Combat/Sim	2002	Third in the Escape Velocity series and first to be released for Windows, Escape Velocity Nova is a space trading and combat game with addictive mechanics, tons of ships and upgrades, and a huge galaxy to explore, trade with, or conquer. The game features six different major storylines and several sub-stories, several factions and quite a lot of fun. Plug-in support also allows you to play the first two games in the series - Escape Velocity and Escape Velocity Override - using the engine.	Link
Football Manager 2016	Sports, simulation	2015	Do you suffer from severe autism? Then this game is for you! Create your own manager and manage football clubs from all around the world. It's a good game with very deep and complex gameplay, but it's the best football simulator. It also has a big community of modders; just don't expect good graphics!	Steam
Freedom Planet	Platformer	2014	Glorious indie old-school 2D mascot platformer, with the sort of level design, physics, graphics and music you'd expect from the very best Mega Drive games.	GOG Humble Steam
Giana Sisters	Platformer	2011	Remake/reboot/reimagining/rewhatever of the fondly remembered German Super Mario ripoff. A solid, very charming old-school platformer. Also for DS, iOS, and Android.	App Store
Giana's Return	Platformer	2008	The one above is the official remake, this one is the unofficial sequel to the 80s classic The Great Giana Sisters. Very fun and really challenging. Freeware, also on several other systems.	Free: Official site
Heroes of Newerth	MOBA	2010	A Defense Of The Ancients clone.	Freemium: Official site
Icewind Dale	RPG	2000	(See Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn and PlaneScape: Torment) You have the ability to custom create your entire party. While this makes for a fun combat group, it takes away the unique character personalities that are present in other Black Isle games. The Icewind Dale series are purely combat oriented, forget about a memorable story or great dialogs, what counts here is to clean the dungeons of hundreds of beasts.	GOG Steam
Jagged Alliance 2: Unfinished Business	TBS/RPG	2000	A turn-based, squad-level strategy game with a roleplaying aspect, excellent mechanics, and good storyline. High initial learning curve, but very solid gameplay once you're familiar with it. Its prequel, Jagged Alliance 2 has also an active community and a very popular v1.13 unofficial patch, which refurbishes the game with a fuckton of weapons and improvements. Great for satiating your inner /k/. It's the best in this genre. A unique jewel.	GOG
Jamestown: Legend of the Lost Colony	Shmup	2011	The year is 1619, and England and Spain are at war for the colonies on planet Mars. Great indie steampunk-ish bullet hell, clearly inspired by Cave's arcades. Lush pixel art and epic orchestral soundtrack.	Steam
Katawa Shoujo	Visual Novel	2012	Freeware romance VN with roots on 4chan. A guy is transfered to a school specialized in people with disabilities, and he meets some special girls. The fan-made "Re-Engineered" version adds some new frills and technical updates.	Free: Original KSRE
King's Bounty: Armored Princess	RPG / Strategy	2010	The sequel to King's Bounty: The Legend. Overwhelmingly similar to its predecessor, Armored Princess continues the cheeky yet fun story of KB and improves a few mechanics. Both of these games are great and definately worth purchasing - both are fun and will challenge you to overcome strategic shortcomings in your army builds.	Steam
King's Bounty: The Legend	RPG / Strategy	2008	Ruskie RPG/Strategy hybrid (NOT SRPG). There are stats, classes and items for your hero, but combat plays out like a SRPG with different troops beating the shit out of each other. Good fun.	Steam
Knock-knock!	Surreal Horror	2013	The latest game from Russian Studio Ice Pick Lodge, and unfortunately also the most poorly reviewed. This is the most accessible release in their library, but this does not detract from their trademark commitment to crafting avant-garde atmospheres with varying degrees of realism and a uniquely Russian sensibility.	Steam
LISA	RPG	2014	A side-scrolling RPG where you play as a middle-aged martial artist called Brad on his quest to rescue his kidnapped adopted daughter in a brutal post-apocalypse where women have become extinct. The story starts dark and quickly descends into a tale of human misery. Notable for having up to 30 characters that can be recruited into the party, plus containing horrible moral choices. Also has a DLC ending called LISA the Joyful which essentially concludes the story.	Steam
Little Big Adventure 2 (aka Twinsen's Odyssey)	Action Adventure	1997	Cute mix of Science fiction and fairytale. Play the role of Twinsen, young wizard that goes on a crazy quest that quickly becomes a really, really REALLY awesome adventure. The graphics are good, gameplay is smooth and the music is very cool. The weapons vary from a blowgun to a laser pistol and the story starts like "go buy medicine at the drugstore" and gets like "you are the chosen one who must save the world!"	GOG
Machinarium	Puzzle	2009	The black-hat robots stole your robot girlfriend, and threw you on the robot junkpile! Pick yourself up, get back into the city and save her. Beautiful art, much pointy-clicky puzzle solving.	Official site
Marathon (series)	FPS	1994-1996	The predecessor to the Halo series. The year is 2794 and you are a security officer aboard the UESC Marathon, a large, multi-generational colony spacecraft (converted from one of Mars's moons). As the ship and the Tau Ceti colony are attacked by hostile extraterrestrials, you find that something is amiss with the ship's artificial intelligences - one of which has gone quite insane after figuring out a secret greater than universe itself.	Free: Sourceforge
Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares	TBS	1996	Old-ass space 4X game with well-balanced and varied gameplay. Lots of tech and economy management, with optional tactical battles. Many different valid strategies to win the game.	GOG
MDK	Action/Adventure	1997	Game made by Shiny, creators of the Earthworm Jim series. You play a guy name Kurt Hectic who goes up against an invading alien army trying to strip-mine the earth. Full of classic Shiny light-hearted and quirky humor like the "world's most interesting bomb" and human shooting range. The graphics are odd but beautiful and the game engine was completely software-based so it could run on weaker machines that didn't have 3d accelerated graphics. The fantastic soundtrack by Todd Dennis (same guy who did the music for Wolfenstein 3D on the 3DO) really brings the whole world to life. There was a sequel made by Bioware that is also awesome (but even more insanely difficult).	GOG
Mercenary Kings	Action/RPG	2014	While the Paul Robertson pixel art and the chiptune music may scream "Metal Slug successor" to you, this game is actually more like Monster Hunter Lite. You take on a variety of missions in the form of Mega Man-esque platformers, and collect materials and money to create better guns and stuff. Multiplayer is fun, too. Only caveat is that it is definitely as difficult as Monster Hunter. Prepare for a LOT of trial and error when it comes to gameplay.	Steam
Minecraft	Sandbox	2011	The world is composed of blocks which you can destroy and reuse to the extent of your imagination. It also features an extensive Survival mode and Multiplayer mode.	Official site
Overload	FPS/sim	2019	The legit spiritual successor to Descent, from many of the original team. The same delicious labyrinthine design, only with modern visuals.	GOG Humble Steam
Pajama Sam (series)	Adventure/Puzzle	1996+	Quirky adventure series. Bit for ~~children~~ REAL MEN, but fun in any case.	Steam
Papers, Please	Dystopian Document Thriller	2013	You are the immigrations inspector for Arstotzka, a Eurasian communist shithole. It is your job to inspect the papers of everyone trying to enter the country, turning away any and all who do not qualify. A lot more engrossing than it sounds. Seriously, play this.	Steam
Pathways Into Darkness	FPS/RPG	1993	An extraterrestrial transmission warns us of impending doom: millions of years ago, a reality-manipulating creature fell on Earth, killing all dinosaurs. Now, it will awaken in a few days, and when it does, it will destroy the world entirely. The only solution is to get it back to bed, by means of a nuclear bomb planted on the lowest levels of a mysterious pyramid of non-human origin. The predecessor to the Marathon series, very unique, and one of the hardest games ever.	Free: App Store
Planescape Torment	RPG	1999	Widely regarded as THE BEST RPG ever made. This is a very dark, story driven game. D&D rules are present, using the Planescape setting, with an amazing multiverse world where Good versus Evil blended with Law versus Chaos: featuring philosophy, existentialism, demons, angels, order and chaos beings, etc. (See Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn and Icewind Dale for more game style details.) Although this game focuses more on the RPG/dialogue part and a bit less on the Action/Combat, the combat sections are still awesome like in BG I&II, featuring even "cutscene spells" a la Final Fantasy summons. Features a wide varied cast of colorful and unique companions even for a D&D adventure. The music, writing and story in this game are objectively THE BEST of any other RPG. Period. Must play for any D&D/RPG fan. Also recommended for Fallout fans. (same team)	GOG
Prodeus	FPS	2022	There's a war going on between demonic monsters and divine-ish aliens, and you're out to massacre both. Super gory indie retro FPS, clearly inspired by Doom.	GOG Humble Steam
Psychonauts	Platformer	2005	Play as an carnival escapee who runs away to a summer camp for psychics. Original storytelling and well written humor compliments this game. Hailed as one of the best platformers of the PS2/XBox generation. Whilst the game can be incredibly frustrating due to bugs and/or camera, the sheer brilliance of the music, visuals, level design, retarded amounts of originality and a feeling of childlike joy eclipe any problems it has.	GOG
Rochard	Platformer / puzzle	2011	When an asteroid mining crew finds evidence of intelligent life out there, they're attacked by space bandits, and soon find themselves as targets of a nasty conspiracy. Excellent graphics and sound, some nice run-n-gun action, and a ton of crazy physics-manipulating puzzles. Too bad it ends in a cliffhanger and the dev has closed doors.	Steam
SimCity 4	Sim	2003	Take control of a city as its mayor, and try to expand whilst keeping the residents happy. The bigger your population, the bigger your dick becomes. However, unlike SimCity 2000, this game has an active modding community. Look for these: Simtropolis / Sim City Devotion / SimPeg	Steam
Skullgirls	Fighting	2013	I hope you brought a pillow to bite, because this game is about to push your shit in. Skullgirls is an indie fighting game that uses the lag-reducing GGPO-netcode, so now even Brazilians can laugh at you. It features an ever-growing roster of playable characters, a unique art-style and some of the most hardcore gameplay since Guilty Gear. If you ever get tired of having to wipe your pussy-ass tears after every match, there's always a Skullgirls General on /vg/.	Steam
Star Wars - Knights Of The Old Republic	RPG	2003	Based on the engine for Neverwinter Nights (and, conseqently, a modified version of D&D rules), this game is a Star Wars RPG. As with that game, gamers who prefer action may find the dice-roll based battle system slow and boring, but despite that, it's a fine Star Wars experience with a compelling story. The debate about which is better rages on, but if you like RPGs, you owe it to yourself to play both this and the sequel.	Steam
Star Wars - Knights Of The Old Republic II: The Sith Lords	RPG	2005	Same as KOTOR, but was developed and written by Obsidian, known for their rather exceptional writing. However, it was ruined by the publisher rushing it, so it is unfinished and bug-ridden. Still worth playing because what they focused their attention on is brilliant. Be sure to use The Sith Lords Restored Content Mod, that makes it much closer to what it was supposed to be.	Steam
Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty	RTS	2010	It's Starcraft, only moreso.
System Shock 2	FPS/RPG	1999	"Look at you, hacker. A pathetic creature of meat and bones, panting and sweating as you run through my corridors. How could you challenge a perfect, immortal machine?"	GOG Steam
Terraria	Survival / Sandbox	2011	LOL VIRAL. Aside from that, this game is ~~wrongly called "Minecraft 2D"~~ what Minecraft's Survival Mode wanted to be and more. It's actually more focused on the rpg (Actual NPCs?!) and fighting (10 weapon types compared to Minecraft's 2), and has a lot more stuff to do. It's really enjoyable and just recieved a HUGE update that adds tons of content.	Steam
The Witcher	Action-RPG	2007	The tale of a badass monster hunter, in a fantasy world full of sex, violence, and morally ambiguous choices to make.	GOG Humble
The Witcher 2	Action-RPG	2012	Geralt was framed for regicide, and seeks to clear his name. Better graphics and a more exciting combat system than the first game.	GOG Humble
Transformice	MMO platformer	2010	You play as mice trying to get cheese into their hole. However, stages are hell-bent on killing you. Luckily, the Shaman player will help (i.e. troll) you with magic.	Steam
Uplink	Strategy/Sim	2002	Hack computers. Don't get caught. Decent story, full of intrigue. Bring down corporations and destory people's lives for money to upgrade your computer while searching for a mysterious virus. Don't let the appearance fool you, the later missions are hard and intense, and the game has quite a few secrets.	GOG
VVVVVV	Platformer	2010	With an art style based on Commodore 64 games and chiptunes for music, you might get the feeling that this is retro indie shit. Well, it's retro and indie, but also fun as hell. Flip gravity back and forth to leap across increasingly elaborate challenges in a quasi-sandbox alternate dimension to incredibly catchy tunes. You'll die, a lot, but a proliferation of checkpoints means you'll rarely lose more than a minute when you die.	Official site
Wasteland 2: Director's Cut	RPG	2014	From the producer of the original Fallout, this is what a modern Fallout would be if they made it for the old fans instead of casuals: a top-down, turn-based tactical RPG with a fuckton of possibilities and immense room for customization.	GOG Humble Steam
Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap	Platformer	2017	An amazing remake of the amazing Master System classic with beautiful, hand-drawn animations and a re-orchestrated soundtrack!	GOG Humble Steam
X3: Terran Conflict	BIG Space Sim	2008	One of the best space simulators, you fly ships (any ships, from small to capitals), you trade, you fight, you build your own stations ( and empire ) you do missions, you pirate, you hire pilots to do things for you ( like sending them on trading runs ). Learning curve like in dwarf fortress, but its worth it. Note: This game is a bitch to play. Your starting ship is a piece of shit if you play custom games.	Steam
Ziggurat	FPS / Dungeon crawl	2014	You're a novice in an order of sorcerers, and it's time for your rite of passage: survive a giant maze full of monsters. Fast-paced indie first person dungeon crawler with procedurally generated levels and permadeath. Pretty short, but great fun for multiple runs because you unlock different characters and items each time.	GOG Humble Steam