Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Shooter Counter-Strike: Global Offensive CS: GO is an online, tactical, first-person shooter from Valve that is consistently one of the most played games on Steam. The game offers the most competitive online Multiplayer out there, including professionals playing on the eSports circuit.



CS: GO features cross-platform Multiplayer between Windows and macOS, a low price, and specs that are incredibly easy on your MacBook. Your internet connection will be more important than your graphics quality with this hardcore shooter, which boasts a 37 fps score on our 2013 MBP and an 82 on our 2016 model.

83 Metascore Shooter No

Team Fortress 2 Shooter Team Fortress 2 Another game that makes regular appearances on our Best of lists, Team Fortress 2 is a team-based shooter: choose your character, join a team, and battle in a variety of game modes including capture the flag and king of the hill.



The graphics are cartoonish and the gameplay squad-oriented with a big focus on cooperative multiplayer. You will need a balanced team to succeed. It’s free-to-play, and couldn’t be much easier on your system requirements as long as you have the 15 GB required hard drive space.

92 Metascore Shooter Yes

Portal 2 Shooter Portal 2 Valve again anyone? And yes, this one is also on many of our Best of lists, and for good reason. A first-person puzzle game that continues the story of the original, Portal 2 features the return of GLaDOS, everyone’s favorite psychotic AI.



With a new and better story, gorgeous environments and cooperative multiplayer, Portal 2 is a sequel that’s better than the original. As an almost ten-year-old game, the system requirements are now incredibly forgiving, allowing you to find your way through Aperture labs on your laptop.

83 Metascore Shooter No

Modern Warfare 3 Shooter COD: Modern Warfare 3 Not the latest but still the best CoD available on Mac, MW3 is one of the best in the series and again, its age means you can get your frag on your Macbook, which is what this article is all about.



Offering cross-platform multiplayer, the expected big budget story and graphics (for the time), and the fast-paced multiplayer you’re looking for in a CoD game, MW3’s modest system requirements mean you can still play a Call of Duty game on your machine as long as you have 13 GB free for installation. 78 Metascore Shooter No

Night in the Woods Adventure Night in the Woods An award-winning adventure game with cartoon graphics and a focus on exploration, Night in the Woods was one of 2017’s most popular indie titles. This game is all about the story, where you play a college dropout returning to their hometown to discover that things aren’t the way you left them.



With dozens of characters to interact with and beautiful environments to explore, including the mysterious woods, Night in the Woods requires a bit more horsepower than some of the others on this list, including an Intel i5 processor.

88 Metascore Adventure No

Hollow Knight Adventure Hollow Knight A Metroidvania-style, side-scrolling 2D platformer with gorgeous, hand-drawn graphics, a great soundtrack, and difficult gameplay, Hollow Knight was another award-winning indie game from 2017. With beautiful environments and open-ended gameplay, Hollow Knight offers everything you could want in a modern take on classic side-scrolling action: an enormous cast of characters, epic bosses, and plenty of power-ups to name a few.



And while not the lightest game on system requirements in this list, Hollow Knight still goes pretty easy, playable on any newer and many older machines.

87 Metascore Adventure No

Celeste Adventure Celeste Another 2D platformer, but cut from a different cloth, Celeste features throwback pixel graphics and a deeper story than you expect from the genre. With over 700 screens to beat as you climb your way up Celeste mountain, you won’t finish this game soon, and respawning is instant from the place you died, no backtracking necessary.



Simple controls belie the difficulty that comes as you progress, but your MacBook will have no such difficulty with system requirements, leaving this game open to anyone running Lion (10.7) or later.

88 Metascore Adventure No

The Banner Saga 3 RPG The Banner Saga 3 You know about The Banner Saga, right? With the third and final installment released this summer, this turn-based RPG has come to a close, the only bad thing about this series. With gorgeous, hand-drawn artwork, an excellent, Viking-based story, and results that carry over from one game to the next, you should definitely start with the first one and play your way through all three.



And thanks to extremely friendly requirements, you can even play the third installment if you’re running Lion (10.7) or later.

82 Metascore RPG No

West of Loathing Adventure West of Loathing You were waiting for “a slapstick comedy stick-figure wild west adventure role-playing game,” right? Well, that’s how the developers describe West of Loathing, definitely a different take on the RPG genre. But don’t let the style make you think there isn’t a good game in there as well, because there is.



With a focus on story and dialog, the (optional) combat can pale in comparison, but West of Loathing is worth it as a breath of fresh air. And the simple graphics means any Mac can run it.

86 Metascore Adventure No

Thimbleweed Park Adventure Thimbleweed Park A point & click adventure game from the creators of Maniac Mansion, the plot of Thimbleweed Park might remind you of Twin Peaks and the pixel graphics might remind you of the games you played back in the 80s … if you’re old enough.



Taking place over one night, unraveling the mystery will require you to solve puzzles, explore the town of Thimbleweed Park, and work together with and/or against all five playable characters. The system requirements keep it playable on any Mac running 10.7 or later.

84 Metascore Adventure No

Hotline Miami Action Hotline Miami Hotline Miami is an ultra-violent top-down shooter set in 1989. The game tells the story of two characters who have to commit massacres against the Russian Mafia in Miami.



What makes this game an indie classic is the way it combines stealth and extreme violence, along with a soundtrack and visuals that perfectly match that 1980s feeling. The gameplay is simple but precise and solid. And thanks to pixel graphics, it can run on virtually anything.

85 Metascore Action No

Papers, Please Simulation Papers, Please A multiple award-winning indie classic, Paper, Please has you as an immigration officer deciding who gets in and who doesn’t. You get to inspect immigrants’ documents and use several tools to weed out potentially dangerous people, such as terrorists, wanted criminals, or smugglers.



You can also interrogate people and request fingerprints or even a full-body scan. It sounds simple, but trust us, this game sucks you in and spits you out. Experience it on any machine that can run MacOS 10.8 or later. 85 Metascore Simulation No

Star Wars: KOTOR 2 RPG Star Wars: KOTOR 2 KOTOR 2 to everyone, it’s still considered one of the best RPGs ever made and is our current Macbook pick for best RPG. Remastered by Aspyr in 2015, the game features improved graphics, a great story, interesting characters, and pausable real-time combat.



And you can choose to join the dark side or the light as you search out the few Jedi who survived the Sith. Requiring a slightly more robust setup than some on this list, it’s still playable on a wide variety of machines.

85 Metascore RPG No

Devil Daggers Shooter Devil Daggers Devil Daggers is a fast-paced game with throwback graphics but modern physics and gameplay. Featuring pixel art graphics and high-end audio, Devil Daggers is an action-packed mix of retro and modern. You’ll face increasingly large and deadly waves of demons with nothing but magic daggers and slick moves to save you.



Known for its difficulty and non-stop action, you’ll also collect demonic crystals so that you can upgrade your magical daggers. A single player game, Devil Daggers does require a dedicated GPU and MacOS 10.9.

83 Metascore Shooter No

Owlboy Adventure Owlboy Owlboy is a pixel-art platform adventure game where you’ll face obstacles and enemies with the help of friends. As you progress through the story, you’ll unlock sidekicks, each with special abilities that will help you fight or solve puzzles. You can swap your sidekick at any time, making the game feel fluid and varied.



But what struck me the most were the graphics. Owlboy features some of the most beautiful pixel-art worlds in recent memory and the fact it can be played on modest hardware makes it even better.

88 Metascore Adventure No

Terraria Adventure Terraria A sandbox action-adventure-survival game featuring pixel graphics, Terraria is sometimes described as a 2D Minecraft clone. Explore, craft, fight, build, it’s all possible in Terraria’s randomly generated worlds. And with cooperative multiplayer, you can do all this with your friends or find new friends to play with online. In addition to LAN and online co-op, multiplayer games can also become PvP if you choose to not get along.



Thanks to its pixel graphics and being a few years old, Terraria’s system requirements make it playable on any machine running MacOS 10.9 or later.

83 Metascore Adventure No

Torchlight 2 RPG Torchlight 2 An old-style action RPG, Torchlight 2 has stood the test of time and is a great choice for MacBook-using RPG fans. A classic hack’n’slash RPG with a focus on exploration and combat, Torchlight 2 builds on the original with new classes, more and better loot and the return of randomly generated levels for maximum replayability.



A sequel to the original story, Torchlight 2 also includes multiplayer, both online and LAN. It’s easy on the system requirements too, more than playable even on a 2013 MBA.

88 Metascore RPG No

Planescape: Torment: Enhanced Edition RPG Planescape: Torment: Enhanced Edition Planescape: Torment remains one of the best RPGs of all time, and with upgraded graphics, music, and interface, the Enhanced Edition is ready for the modern era.



You play as the Nameless One, who has lived several lifetimes but can’t remember them, until now. You are sent off in search of answers to your existence. And while Planescape has all the classic combat RPG features, its story and characters make it unique. And if you’re running MacOS 10.8 or later, you can play this game.

85 Metascore RPG No