A game that isn't that well known, but technologically impressive called MDK was released in 1997. It was a nonsensical third person shooter for DOS and Microsoft Windows allowing polygon graphics without a GPU. It ran entirely on the CPU if you had a pentium (1995ish) processor or later.

[Look at those polygons. Goddamn]

It may not seem technologically impressive and given how software rendering games were still a thing in the late 90s, why is it even worth the time of day? It did stuff that was never done on a game. Everyone was trying to make the next big FPS game, they went with a third person shooter instead with the camera facing behind the player. I don't think this was the first third person shooter to exist, but it combined a unique sense of gameplay involving puzzles using your sniper scope as well as shooting with your chain gun.

What made it special was not just the fact is ran without requiring a dedicated GPU (or any GPU for that matter), but it had rather vast levels that didn't have to be split across map loading screens like half life. To put things in perspective, half life every 10 minutes had to load a new map for a few seconds to change levels. MDK was seamless.

Nothing in this game is taken seriously. You get mini nukes as a usable item, you're a janitor being tasked with saving the world, the list goes on and on. So I guess you could say it stood out from all the gritty serious shooter games that were aping doom and quake. And by 1997, MS DOS had faded out with windows replacing it entirely. The fact alone this was on DOS is impressive itself.

I grew up personally on the sequel for the PC as well as the sega dreamcast. You got to play not just kurt (The main protagonist) but also the mad scientist you're employed by as well as the four armed dog called max that has a large array of firearms. The sequel had voice acting and it was honestly fun and charming in its own right. These days I would avoid the PC version because save scumming makes it far too easy to beat the game. In the dreamcast version, you have checkpoints for saving. If you have 1 HP, tough fucking nubs. Git gud. I guess that's why console games potentially can be better than PC games because the issue of save scumming is not as much of a thing.

[Ah nostalgia. I just love that era of 3D modeling].

You didn't just play again as kurt in the sequel. You were this time joined by max and doctor hawkins to finish the job. Docs levels were more reliant on puzzle solving and you can't use brute force to finish the level. As for max, it's more about going in guns blazing, but you have some parts you need to think before you act, though the max levels can sometimes go into guns blazing too much at times. But I digress.

Overall, the first one may not seem appealing after playing today's games and you might be tempted to play the 2nd one instead. I say give both a shot if you like third person shooters, might be right up your ally.