• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

Are even great video games a product of their time?

Are even great video games a product of their time?

  • Yes

    Votes: 28 77.8%

  • No

    Votes: 8 22.2%
  • Total voters
    36
GamesDontSuck

GamesDontSuck

Member
Let's go back to 1998 and one of the greatest games of all time in my opinion in released. Metal Gear Solid. The story, atmosphere, gameplay, production values .. you name it. It was an amazing game. It raised the bar of the AAA game in the industry. Fast foward to 2026 and could an 18 year old really enjoy the game as much? knowing the graphics are basically primitive by todays standards and it has tank controls. Sure, the story, characters and music is there but would it be the same experience?

A few years ago I worked along side a young guy (teens) and he was into video games. So chatting one day I asked if he played Half Life 2? (This was a good decade after it came out). He said he did but couldn't see why everyone was saying it was one of the best video games ever. He liked first person shooters but felt more modern (at the time) titles did it better. When HL2 came out the physics were insane (amongst everything else) but it raised the bar. Other games then had more physics etc.

I always felt that a good game is always a good game regardless of how long it's been since release - but i've been playing video games for decades. I can load up a game from the NES and slip right back in. Can the younger folk do the same? or they cant get past the technology, game design and standards of the time?

If it's the latter, then are video games really a product of their time?
 
Last edited:
Stealth games still live under the shadow of Thief II: The Metal Age.
RPGs (W or J) are nowhere near as amazing as Daggerfall.
Half-Life 2 is still the benchmark for linear cinematic experiences.
The Silent Hill tetralogy is the apex of psychological horror.

The industry peaked a long time ago, with some exceptions.
Most of the great games post-2010 are only extrapolations of the giants who's shoulders they stand on.

EDIT: If controls are the breaking point for newer gamers, git gud. I'll take hardware compatibility and availability as more serious drawbacks of older games than uncommon control schemes.
 
Last edited:
The Legend Of Zelda Link GIF



Great games secure their legacy IMO


the legend of zelda nintendo GIF


200.gif
 
I think it's also that we're a product of those times. People who didn't grow up alongside the industry can't relate to the fun we had with those older games. They see them as limited and clunky compared to what was standard when they grew up. Plus nostalgia goes a long way. What was great at the time just may not hold up if the rose colored spectacles come off. Slipping back into an old game may just feel good because of the times you remember having with it. But it may not be that great anymore.
 
Using a modern controller playing an old 3d platformer feels like playing with one of your arms chopped off. It's possible, but klunky AF.
People used to play games like this? At least they had something to play between hunting down wooly mammoths for dinner. :)
 
OP you need a 'sometimes' option.

I don't think it's the case with all great games from the pre-PS2 era that they have aged like milk.

I just think that some of them now feel worse because we collectively know that something better exists. And lower framerates back then didn't help at all with gameplay feel.

Even with something like MGS, it can be a bit tough to go back to 1 when 2 controls so much smoother.

Me personally I love Perfect Dark but even I can admit that it feels very odd to play as a shooter, and even when it first released you had games like Quake 3 and UT coming out.
 
The Psycho Mantis encounter/fight is 100% a product of it's time and a prime example of something you cannot fully "get" if you didn't experience it when it came out.
 
ssringo said:
The Psycho Mantis encounter/fight is 100% a product of it's time and a prime example of something you cannot fully "get" if you didn't experience it when it came out.
Click to expand...
Speaking of this, not sure how many people here played the PS3 version but the 'controller change' part was a bit dumber because it made you open the XMB quick system settings to assign the controller to 'slot 2'.
 
There is a strong component about great games of that time and is that you where a young lad in his prime, unknowingly being happy, and not a grumpy forty-something Spaniard complaining about colour haired females in GAF. And balding. And overweighted. Still kinda handsome, tho.
 
It depends.

Games that relay heavily on tech advancements and gimmicks are products of their times. Others are universal.

The original FFVII is better than most games releasing today.

The original Metroid is still great in its genre.

I could mention a thousand more, but that's the idea.
 
Last edited:
GamesDontSuck said:
So chatting one day I asked if he played Half Life 2? (This was a good decade after it came out). He said he did but couldn't see why everyone was saying it was one of the best video games ever. He liked first person shooters but felt more modern (at the time) titles did it better. When HL2 came out the physics were insane (amongst everything else) but it raised the bar. Other games then had more physics etc.
Click to expand...
I never played Half-Life 2 back in the day but they gave it away for free on Steam during one of the anniversaries a while ago.

So I finally played it and honestly I really had to force myself through parts of it while constantly reminding myself: 'this game is over 20 years old'. I didn't think it was bad but for my personal tastes it was genuinely hard to get through at times

I think that's the curse of being influential. Half-Life 2 did so many things first that modern players don't experience them as innovations anymore. I just ended up seeing mechanics and ideas I'd already experienced in newer games with better pacing and gunplay

Never finished it and probably never will.

OjvsdIW9BBeIGxtx.jpg
 
Last edited:
Radical_3d said:
There is a strong component about great games of that time and is that you where a young lad in his prime, unknowingly being happy, and not a grumpy forty-something Spaniard complaining about colour haired females in GAF. And balding. And overweighted. Still kinda handsome, tho.
Click to expand...

My hair is even lushier than the dude's that bangs your mom on Wednesdays.

Plenty of silver in it, though.
 
Last edited:
As somebody that lived through it and loves a lot of the games, I can't play or even look at PS1 3D polygonal games for the most part these days. That and the N64 probably have the ugliest games of all time in retrospect.

Not that every PS1/N64 game is ugly, but by and large they are.

That doesn't detract from the good points like gameplay/story/etc, but yea, my imagination was doing a lot of lifting as a kid.
 
Of course. As long as they worked intelligently within their constraints you can still see the brilliance of the original developers. But you aren't going to awe a zoomer with Hyrule Field and z-targeting.
 
Last edited:
The more simplistic something is, the more I find it holds up over time. A prime eg. for me would be the Housemarque arcade stuff like Super Stardust HD, Dead Nation, Resogun, Nex Machina etc.. or thatgamecompany's trilogy of games on PS3.

I'm much more hesitant to go back to the more full-fledged games I loved like Assassin's Creed II, as I worry it just won't hold up and may sully the memory.
 
Great games will always live on through time with remakes, reboots, remasters, anniversary collections etc.

I would say arcade games and split screen multi-player games are mostly a product of their time because the social element of playing with people in the same room as you was a huge part of what made a lot of those games fun.

That's why I would label a game like Goldeneye or House of the Dead a product of their time.
 
GamesDontSuck said:
Let's go back to 1998 and one of the greatest games of all time in my opinion in released. Metal Gear Solid. The story, atmosphere, gameplay, production values .. you name it. It was an amazing game. It raised the bar of the AAA game in the industry. Fast foward to 2026 and could an 18 year old really enjoy the game as much? knowing the graphics are basically primitive by todays standards and it has tank controls. Sure, the story, characters and music is there but would it be the same experience?

A few years ago I worked along side a young guy (teens) and he was into video games. So chatting one day I asked if he played Half Life 2? (This was a good decade after it came out). He said he did but couldn't see why everyone was saying it was one of the best video games ever. He liked first person shooters but felt more modern (at the time) titles did it better. When HL2 came out the physics were insane (amongst everything else) but it raised the bar. Other games then had more physics etc.

I always felt that a good game is always a good game regardless of how long it's been since release - but i've been playing video games for decades. I can load up a game from the NES and slip right back in. Can the younger folk do the same? or they cant get past the technology, game design and standards of the time?

If it's the latter, then are video games really a product of their time?
Click to expand...
That'd be a yes.
Video games aren't like books or music, they're more like movies.
You think any one current day watch Journey to the Moon would be impressed by it?
 
a good game's a good game, but yeah, the experience is very dependent on one's age, where the industry was, the gaming community at the time, etc.

HL1 or UT99 on an absolute shit-tier pc was mindblowing because i hadnt played anything like those before, computers felt like magic at that age, and they felt like "big kid/adult" games when most of my experience was console games.
 
I'm missing nuance of characters, plots but otherwise Games are literal technology, can you go and give somebody a nokia phone today?
 
Original Dungeon Keeper is still the best game of it's kind.

Super Metroid is still among the best games of it's kind (i'm being generous for not just calling it the best).

Yoshi's Island is still the best 2D platformer.

DOOM/Quake still have some of the best level designs for FPS games.

Silent Hill 2/REmake are still the best horror games.

Starcraft 1/Red Alert 2 are still the best RTS games.

Vanilla WoW was the best MMO experience.


Shall i continue? Because those old games were just on top of my head.

And also, older games used to have better music and memorable sound effects. Sound in modern games is an afterthought.
 
Kojima's games definitely are 🤭

Good gameplay is eternally enjoyable (Tetris will be playable forever), but everything around it is inevitably a product of its time. Another reason why good artstyle trumps realism every time. Every tech will look dated a decade after release.
 
I'd say there are more games that are a "product of their time" now then we've ever had before.

to me a "product of its time" is something that heavily relies on that era, not through experiential existentialism but through pop culture references or current zeitgeist etc.

a perfect non game example right now is the Boys, it's a hot shit show that's always been a steaming pile, but people thought it was so cool and relevant, but in 3 years when there's a new president and everything shifts again the boys will be pointless. it's pointless show that's forgotten because it heavily relies on that certain agenda.

in 20 years no one is going back to watch the boys because it's relevance will be all but dead. However, people still go back to rewatch Seinfeld, Frasier, Friends etc because those shows stand the test of time, sure the clothes might be funny and the cars and there's no cellphones, but the enjoyment doesn't rely on existing literally when it's made.

So a game like Dragon age veilguard is only relevant for its trans agenda for like 5 months. In 20 years no one will remember it for anything because it was 100% a product of its time.

But ocarina of time requires no knowledge or understanding of the 90s, the pop culture, the world at large. Sure it looks old, it plays old but it's timeless because it can be enjoyed beyond when it's made.

TLDR; a product of it's time isn't apt for older games when they weren't designed with "this current thing right now" in mind.
 
As people said in this game, it varies from game to game. Some age perfectly, some age poorly. Like Ocarina of Time was amazing at the time, but now it's probably decent.

While other stuff like SSX3 are 22 years old and probably still better than like 99% of snowboarding games coming out (indies?)
 
OP here....
As I just found out there are exceptions to the rule! I randomly played Tony Hawk 2 for the ps1 for a tiktok video I was making today. Man... that game still holds up. Like it shouldnt, its a ps1 game. But it's timeless.

Anways, here is the video if anyone wants to check it out: TikTok Video

Mods, feel free to delete if a shameless plug is against TOS.
 
Every video game is precisely the encapsulation of the people working on the game at a precise point in time with a precise culture around them which they influence and are a part of in some way.

And it cannot be replicated: the people are gone, the era is gone, the technology is different.
 
Every game is a product of its time, but some hold up better because they haven't been copied/iterated on much, or they did a combination of things that other games only get a few things right.

Some newer games also try to copy a game, without understanding why the original game was designed that way, and end up making something worse.

Probably the easiest gen that doesn't tend to age well is the PS1-era, just because 3d was so no, and controls + camera systems were heavily improved on for many genres.
 
Doom 1993, Super Mario 3 and World, Zelda 1. Contra, Bionic Commando, Street Fighter 2 Turbo, God Hand.

If i actually sat down to make a list it'd be huge.
 
Its like saying if younger generation would feel the same as people who watch Star Wars movie for the first time. The wow factor for Star Wars was always its special effects but to the younger generation, such thing is a dime a dozen.
 
Some gaming systems before my time I can get into like Atari 2600, vectrex and Colecovision. Other systems Apple II, Commodore 64 and 80's PC games are are not appealing to me.

But there's always that dismissive voice that says it's just rose tinted glasses or nostalgia from people that just don't get it.
 
Polaris said:
Stealth games still live under the shadow of Thief II: The Metal Age.
RPGs (W or J) are nowhere near as amazing as Daggerfall.
Half-Life 2 is still the benchmark for linear cinematic experiences.
The Silent Hill tetralogy is the apex of psychological horror.

The industry peaked a long time ago, with some exceptions.
Most of the great games post-2010 are only extrapolations of the giants who's shoulders they stand on.

EDIT: If controls are the breaking point for newer gamers, git gud. I'll take hardware compatibility and availability as more serious drawbacks of older games than uncommon control schemes.
Click to expand...

People whine about tank controls in RE games, but they're not that bad.

Changing to over the shoulder, was a mistake (and first person was even worse).

The vibe just isn't the same with free camera controls.
 
Last edited:
Of course they are products of their time... what makes those games special is the fact that full package fills so advanced that you beleive they are from the future, so to speak.

- Because MSG storytelling today is dated as heck, but for the time... wow
- Because HL2 is meh as heck today, but for the time, gravity gun was almost unimaginable!
- Because OoT gameplay today is dated as fu**, but for the time? Holy moly!
 
kiphalfton said:
People whine about tank controls in RE games, but they're not that bad.

Changing to over the shoulder, was a mistake (and first person was even worse).

The vibe just isn't the same with free camera controls.
Click to expand...

Tank control was the worst part about early RE series. Its outdated, clunky, and lack freedom of movement due to static camera angle. No way younger audience will tolerate with such control mechanic.

While you might think over the shoulder was a mistake, Capcom certainly don't think so given the continue success of the RE series.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

The greatest video game composition of all time is
2 3
131
1K
Games Bookstore replied
Crowbcat: RE4 is timeless, RE4 Remake is a product of its time
7 8 9 10 11
519
3K
Soodanim replied
What would a video game crash even look like today?
42
633
simpatico replied
Hasbro is spending $1bn making video games, and none of them are games-as-a-service
Opinion Business Game Dev 
19
258
Fbh replied
What are your insanely fantastic experiences with video games?
2
88
715
RomanceDawn replied
Top Bottom