Top-down perspective sorted by release date

Top down games were very popular in the 80s and the 90s, when graphic cards were not capable of supporting 3D, and even when 3D started to become popular, 2D games continued to be easier to develop, at least in the infancy of 3D gaming. 2D game offered the player a viewpoint that helped keeping things easily under control (think about top down party-based RPGs or hex-based strategy games).

Most popular top down games

Civilization

strategyDOS, Windows 3.x

Civilization 2

strategyWindows XP/98/95

Grand Theft Auto

action-adventureDOS, Windows XP/98/95

Top down games

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Tiny Skweeks

DOS19923.5/5 Kalisto Entertainment
Traders

DOS19923.8/5 Linel
Trivial Pursuit Deluxe

DOS19923.3/5 Oxford Digital Enterprises
Ultima 7 Part 1: The Black Gate

DOS19924.3/5 Origin Systems

Ultima VII: The Black Gate is a top-down RPG where you, the Avatar, have to find out what's happening in Britannia by solving quests, meeting interesting NPCs and fight hordes of headleass monsters. The land of Britannia is shaken by mysterious earthquakes, a new religion (the Fellowship) is spreading and is replacing the old virtues, and who is th...
UnReal World v. 3.20

Windows XP/98/95Mac1992freeware4.1/5
V for victory: Velikiye Luki

DOS1992protected3.9/5 Atomic Games
WinRisk

Windows 3.x19924.1/5
18th Airborne

DOS19933.6/5
Alien Breed

DOS1993protected3.7/5 Team 17
Allan Border's Cricket

DOS19933.8/5 Audiogenic
Ambush at Sorinor

DOS19933.7/5 Mindcraft Software
Bass Duel

DOS19933.6/5
Battle Isle 93: The Moon of Chromos

DOS19934/5 Blue Byte Software
Bloodstone: an Epic Dwarven Tale

DOS19934/5 Mindcraft Software
Bravo Romeo Delta

DOS19934.3/5
Burntime

DOS19934/5 Max Design
Carnage

DOS19934.1/5 Warped Minds
Castle of the Winds

Windows 3.x1993freeware4.2/5 SaadaSoft

Castle of the Winds (1993, by Saadasoft) is a perfect example of an atypical roguelike (no ASCII, runs in Windows) turned into a liberated game. Surprisingly Castle of the Winds is still very playable to this day, if you can make it run under a recent version of Windows.
Clash of Steel

DOS1993protected4/5 SSI Strategic Simulations Inc.
Daemonsgate

Windows XP/98/95DOSLinuxMac1993protected3.9/5 Imagitec Design
Dark Sun: Shattered Lands

DOS1993protected4.1/5 SSI Strategic Simulations Inc.
Empire Deluxe

DOSWindows 3.x19934/5 White Wolf Productions
Epic Pinball

DOS1993protected3.7/5 Digital Extremes
Fantasy Empires

DOS1993protected4/5 Silicon Knights
Fields of Glory

DOS1993protected4.1/5 MicroProse Software
FlixMix

DOS19933.5/5 Celeris
Gary Grigsby's War in Russia

DOS1993protected3.8/5 SSI Strategic Simulations Inc.
Global Domination

DOS19933.5/5 Impressions Games
Goal!

DOS19933.8/5 Dini & Dini Productions
God of Thunder

DOSWindows XP/98/951993freeware4.1/5 Adept Software

God of Thunder is a free computer role-playing game designed by Ron Davis, developed by Adept Software and released by Software Creations in 1993 for DOS and Windows platforms. God of Thunder is an action oriented RPG (sort of...) with strong puzzle elements with a norse mythology theme.