The 25 best Mac games you can play right now

Macs have never had the best reputation for gaming. Whether because Apple preferred to market them as creative computing powerhouses or because their aluminium shells could cook eggs after a heavy graphics session, the lowly Mac spent much of its youth in the gaming outhouse – but things have changed. There is a growing and substantial crop of computing capers that you can beam to your Mac through the App Store and Steam. Here are 25 of the best you can grab for your Mac right now.

PORTAL 2 (£14.99)

Portal 2 keeps the first-person puzzle-solving approach of Valve’s iconic original, but there’s more than just teleportation at play here: you’ll also fuss with lasers, light bridges, and slippery goo to make your way through these challenging lab stages. And in addition to the hilarious solo campaign, there’s also a separate co-op campaign that demands a buddy. Find one for it.

HOMEWORLD REMASTERED COLLECTION (£26.99)

Homeworld in many ways defined the real-time strategy genre when it was released in 1998. Seeing players focus on space campaign missions through which all surviving ships and resources progress to future challenges, gameplay is both expansive and thoroughly engaging, with developing objectives, immersive cut-scenes and numerous unlockables.

HEROES OF THE STORM (£FREE)

Like other MOBAs, Heroes of the Storm is a five-on-five battle for map domination, as you team up to bash down the enemy’s turrets before taking down their base…unless they do it to you first. It’s loaded with StarCraft, Diablo, Warcraft, and Overwatch characters and is a lot more streamlined than the others, making it the perfect first genre entry. And besides, all these MOBAs are free-to-play, so there’s no harm in giving them a shot.

TOMB RAIDER (£14.99)

You probably know the original Lara Croft from the earliest Tomb Raider games, which were strong and influential before becoming tired and stale. But do you know the new Tomb Raider, which cribs some fundamentals from Sony’s Uncharted and reintroduces the iconic heroine? It’s pretty fantastic, as Tomb Raider delivers an epic, cinematic adventure through unforgiving wilds, pairing melee action with gunplay, stealth attacks, exploration, and a bit of puzzle-solving.

ROCKET LEAGUE (£14.99)

If you’ve never played Rocket League, it’s basically futuristic, gravity-defying football – played in cars. Souped-up, shiny cars roaring around neon-lit arenas. It’s bright, brash and thoroughly playable. There’s a full single-player mode, but it’s in the online 8-player games where Rocket League comes into its own: expect multiplayer mayhem, richly rendered cartoon graphics and instantly addictive gameplay.

DIRT RALLY (£39.99)

Your Mac might be a pristine, refined beauty of a computer, but it can be used to make a big ol’ digital mess in the great Dirt Rally. Codemasters’ series has typically delivered its rally racing with an arcade edge in recent years, but Dirt Rally skids back into serious simulation territory. It’s still a total gem though, as it delivers intense, authentic racing action across six huge rallies with 70+ stages, letting you command more than 40 realistic rally cars from across the years.

GRIM FANDANGO REMASTERED (£10.99)

Another masterful reworking of a 90s classic, Grim Fandango hits MacOS with new, hi-res textures, dynamic lighting and a live orchestral score, bringing Tim Schafer’s sensational styling into the next-gen era. Following the story of Manny Calavera, employee of the Department of Death and travel agent to the dead, Fandango’s macabre, film noir-feel made it an instant classic, which translates magically to Mac.

HITMAN (FIRST EPISODE FREE + IAP)

IO Interactive’s stealth assassin series lost a bit of steam over time, but with a new episodic format, the revived Hitman feels totally fresh and is an essential play for action fans. This is no run-and-gun game, however: Hitman is all about the slow, nuanced process of setting up for and then executing a perfect, calculated, unseen kill. Each episode of the now-complete first season offers up an entirely new sandbox environment full of missions, bonus objectives, and unique opportunities to plot your attack.

THIS WAR OF MINE (£18.99)

This War of Mine took the gaming world by storm when it was released, and for good reason: playing as a group of civilians attempting to make it through each day in a beseiged, war-torn city, TWoM attempts to provide a real experience of war, from a previously-untold angle. With a pace set by the day and night cycle, This War engrosses you in the horrible reality of war: every decision made will have unforgiving emotional impacts, as you struggle for shelter and survival from snipers and starvation.

KERBAL SPACE PROGRAM (£29.99)

Despite its quirky graphics and the Minion-esque mannerisms of the Kerbals, Kerbal Space Program is deceptively hard. It requires an actual working knowledge of the physics behind getting a rocket into space: think thrust, payload delivery, stability, orbital paths and other impressive-sounding words. If astronautical engineering isn’t really your bag, you needn’t worry – most of the fun in KSP is to be had with designing ludicrous vessels just to see how far you can get. There’s also a morass of mods on the web to make it an even greater exploration experience.

MINECRAFT (£17.95)

Minecraft is like the digital equivalent of Lego bricks, letting you build whatever you please using an array of small, pixelated blocks. You can play in a freeform creative mode, deal with monstrous threats in a survival experience, hop online to play with pals, or install mods for endless other variations. It’s perfect for all ages, really. If you don’t already have the block-building sensation on your phone, tablet, or game console, then you ought to get it for Mac.

SID MEIER’S CIVILIZATION VI (£49.99)

The legend is back! Players have been obsessing over Civilization for decades now, and with Sid Meier’s Civilization VI, Firaxis has both expanded the game and made it easier to understand. And that’s good news for all kinds of Civ players. Civilization VI is built off the back of previous entries, certainly, but this turn-based strategy experience brings in active research and improves diplomacy options, while cities can now be built around natural terrain thanks to a new multi-tile approach.

LEGO STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS (£24.99)

Lego games are known for their mindless, smile-inducing fun, and what better pairing for that formula than Star Wars? It’s worked multiple times over the years, and while we don’t yet have a Last Jedi iteration, Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens is still plenty compelling. It’s all about blasting and smashing brick-based enemies and locations as you play through the movie’s storyline, complete with goofy cut-scenes that poke fun at the familiar tale.

TORMENT: TIDES OF NUMENERA (£34.99)

Torment is a spiritual successor to Planescape, the old-school classic, and it spotlights an immortal hero who must battle against the mysterious Sorrow. It’s heavy on storytelling and delivers a deeply compelling world to explore, with about 40 hours of epic questing to enjoy from the core adventure.

BATTLE CHEF BRIGADE (£15.49)

Battle Chef Brigade is a strange concoction, much like those you’ll cook up in the game – and like those can be on your best days, the game is also rather appetising. You’re taking part in a fantasy cooking competition, and you’ll prepare dishes by matching elemental gems and securing ingredients by beating beasts to a pulp. It’s a little bit of this and a little bit of that, but it all adds up into something unexpectedly special.

MIDDLE EARTH: SHADOW OF MORDOR (£15.99)

“No, I wouldn’t like to own the definitive version of a game (including heaps of DLC) which won more than 50 awards. Nor would I like to bash some orcs and smash some enemies in a game with masses of missions and quest-filled furore, set in an immense, Tolkein-inspired fantasy land.” Oh. Well, we were going to suggest Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, but you probably won’t like it, then.

HOTLINE MIAMI 2: WRONG NUMBER (£11.99)

Hotline’s second coming is just as much a frantic, ultraviolent top-down 8-bit role-player as its first iteration. Wrong Number gives you the chance to control 13 different psychopathic shooters each with unique skill sets, offering brutal combat opportunities as the game’s unique, retro visual style and immersive narrative experience pull you fully in.

BESIEGE (£5.59)

Fulfil your inner engineer with Besiege: construct medieval siege contraptions to lay waste to countless conurbations, with a building system simple enough for slaughterers-in-training, whilst sufficiently complex to fulfil the cravings of infinitely creative conquerers. Concentrate your cranium with hatchet-job science to create clever catapults, monster manglers and terrific trebuchets, with all the resulting destruction rendered in glorious 3D.

XCOM 2 (£48.99)

Aliens rule the earth. Society seems shiny and great, but dissenters are bumped off like it’s 1984. Welcome to the world of XCOM 2: a strategy title where the remaining members of a tiny resistance force must battle to rally troops and face-off against their alien overlords. Blending classical strategic planning, tactics and development with gripping combat interactions – all in visually rich detail – XCOM is one strategy game that won’t leave you bored.

FARMING SIMULATOR 17 (£33.99)

The title says it all, really – but don’t go thinking this is just some crop-cutting bore-fest. See, the FS series has captured the imagination of the internet, which means there’s a whole host of mods out there – as well as a barrage of YouTube videos – which make it a real sack of laughs. Head into FS 17’s online multiplayer mode and you can expect carnage, as combine harvesters, tractors and the rest wreak havoc in fields of sunflowers, soy beans and more.

HALF-LIFE 2 (£6.99)

Yes, it was originally released in 2004 – but that doesn’t stop Half-Life 2 being an all-time great adventurer, and that remains very much the case on this Mac port. Playing as scientist-turned-saviour-of-humanity Gordon Freeman, it’s all on you to fend off the aliens infesting the planet. Deploy your wits and weapons – including the immense gravity gun – to free humanity, while enjoying the award-winning physics, graphics and human emotions which made Half-Life 2 such a success.

MOTORSPORT MANAGER (£24.99)

Reckon you’re the next Briatore? Think you could trump EJ? Put your mettle to the test with Motorsport Manager – probably the best racing management simulator that’s ever been made. Originally a beautifully realised smartphone game, it’s now hit the Mac – among other platforms – with greater depth, richer graphics and generally more addictive gameplay.

COUNTER-STRIKE: GLOBAL OFFENSIVE (£11.99)

Decent multiplayer shooters are few and far between on the Mac. Sure, there are some Call of Duty ports kicking around, but for engrossing, button-mashing combat there aren’t many places to turn. Thankfully, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is all the gun-toting you’ll ever need. A steep learning curve only adds to the addictiveness, as you utilise a range of unlockable weapons to fight insurgents as a counter-terrorist – or vice versa – battling across 7 maps where death is always right around the corner.

STARCRAFT II (£FREE)

StarCraft II is several years old at this point, but it remains a real-time strategy classic. And yet there’s fresh reason to play it right now, especially if you haven’t before: Blizzard recently made the original Wings of Liberty campaign and the core online multiplayer experience free. Yes, free! This sci-fi sequel is worth your cash, but now you won’t have to spend it.

RUST (£14.99)

Originally launched in 2013, Rust has been rebooted for Mac – and, while that hasn’t gone entirely to plan, with plenty of development issues, it’s still a cruel, immersive survival game that will test your patience. It’s multiplayer-only and, really, you need to play in a group. Play alone and all of your hard work – building shelter, finding food, crafting some semblance of a life for yourself – will almost definitely be raided and decimated by a bigger group of players.