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What games were ahead of their time?

SantaC

SantaC

Gold Member
With ahead of its time it could mean graphics, atmosphere, innovation etc.

Some games that comes to my mind:

  • Elite - space exploration in 3D back in 1984
  • Original Metroid - isolation, music and exploration
  • Donkey Kong Country - SGI technology used in a snes game
  • Duke Nukem 3D - set traps, cool weapons, jetpacks etc
  • Zelda wind waker. - Celshading was stunning back in 2002, it still looks good today.
  • Half-life 2 - due to the physics at the time
  • Crysis - obvious thanks to the graphical prowness.
 
Birdo

Birdo

Banned
Hunter on the Amiga.

Open-world 3D action game in 1991.

23117.jpg
 
brian0057

brian0057

Banned
  • System Shock 1 and 2.
    • Still the best sci-fi horror ever made.
  • Thief: The Dark Project and The Metal Age.
    • Still the best stealth games ever made.
  • Deus Ex.
    • Still the best FPS/RPG hybrid ever made.
  • The Elder Scroll II: Daggerfall.
    • Still the best RPG ever made
No game has surpassed this masterpieces.
 
Neff

Neff

Member
Elite
Space Harrier
Super Mario Bros
Phantasy Star
Midwinter
Street Fighter II
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Super Mario 64
Resident Evil
Tomb Raider
Metal Gear Solid
Resident Evil 4
 
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S

Slings and Arrows

Banned
Kingdom under fire - first time I saw a mix of genres in one setting, maybe a Japanese game was out before this one?

Advent rising - push, pull and throw enemies in to space with ragdoll/physics based abilities

Mindjack - You could play as the enemy in someone elses game and IMO is still the game that is yet to be copied or emulated.

Command and conquer renegade - FPS with base building RTS elements.

Brute force - 4 player co-op where you could smash the game together

Headhunter - drive around an open world city and complete missions. This game was on the DC and I have never seen traversal and open movement around a city like this before. Maybe GTA 3 beat it?

Halo - The original Halo launched with the xbox back in 2001. It featured split-screen co-op and AI that surpassed even Unreal.

Unreal 2k - Can't remember the title fully but it was on the Dreamcast. The enemy AI changed plans on the fly to out-smart you, even in split-screen co-op. I remember being blown away when the enemy team changed tactics.
 
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brian0057

brian0057

Banned
Quazar77 said:
Silent Hill (and Silent Hill 2) - it took horror by the balls and finally brought real maturity and sophistication to the genre - paved the way for many, MANY devs that came after

Even the soundtracks were ahead of their time for gaming
Click to expand...
There are no bad Akira Yamaoka composed soundtracks.
It's a physical impossibility.
 
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DunDunDunpachi

DunDunDunpachi

Banned
The answer to this question shifts and changes depending on what is currently in fashion. This hobby is cyclical. Devs are still tweaking control schemes, mastering art styles, fiddling with sensitivities in aiming and moving, exploring new storytelling techniques, mixing various mechanics like alchemists in a lab, and so forth. It makes the hobby interesting, in my opinion.

I think the games that were ahead of their time are arcade games from the 70s, 80s, and early 90s. They somehow got to the essence of what makes games interesting right there at the beginning and created so many genres out of thin air. I'm not dogging all the excellent stuff that has come in the past decades, but arcades are still a touchstone for indies and AAA titles alike. Devs are still trying to recapture that skill-based advancement and competitive thrill. With the "casual bubbles" of the DS/Wii and then again on smartphones, the industry has learned that you need to provide some appeal to the casual market. Videogames can't live in a bubble. You need the filthy casuals' money. So devs started simplifying things and making them more pick-up-and-play and throwing in quicker respawns and bigger powerups and greater swings in character power. Gaming has turned back to its arcade roots because that's how you keep people playing your f2p online-only title.

I think it's fascinating. Videogames didn't have to ever become competitive. They could have just as well evolved into slightly-interactive movies and interactive books and interactive rhythm games and single-player puzzles and digital versions of boardgames, but for some reason people really gravitated toward challenging, competitive, pick-up-and-play games.
 
Grand Theft Scratchy

Grand Theft Scratchy

Banned
"Ahead of its time" implies most people weren't ready for and didn't give it a chance despite it doing something groundbreaking, yes? That said, I'm pretty sure Metal Gear Solid, Street Fighter II, Super Mario 64, Resident Evil, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Silent Hill etc. were all highly successful games that people remember to this day.

Meanwhile, I have yet to see another game like Skies of Arcadia that features ship battles, recruiting crew members to populate your airship and use them in battle, discovering and documenting landmarks in the overworld etc.

 
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Nightrunner

Nightrunner

Member
Septentrion/SOS for the SNES which is basically a video game version of The Poseidon Adventure. The entire game takes place aboard a sinking ship and you can pick 4 different characters each with their own story and multiple endings depending on who you manage to rescue or not. The game itself plays like one giant escort mission but depending on where you go / who you encounter and what you say to them you can experience different events + each ending reveals different things about the characters.
Unfortunately the actual gameplay is a bit flawed with AI followers constantly bugging out + shoddy platforming but it does seem like a really ambitious game for its time. This game is one best enjoyed with save states or a rewind function.
 
thicc_girls_are_teh_best

thicc_girls_are_teh_best

Member
System Shock 1 (and its sequel, System Shock 2)

Descent

Exhumed/PowerSlave

...at least off the top of my head. There's arguably plenty of others though.

DunDunDunpachi said:
The answer to this question shifts and changes depending on what is currently in fashion. This hobby is cyclical. Devs are still tweaking control schemes, mastering art styles, fiddling with sensitivities in aiming and moving, exploring new storytelling techniques, mixing various mechanics like alchemists in a lab, and so forth. It makes the hobby interesting, in my opinion.

I think the games that were ahead of their time are arcade games from the 70s, 80s, and early 90s. They somehow got to the essence of what makes games interesting right there at the beginning and created so many genres out of thin air. I'm not dogging all the excellent stuff that has come in the past decades, but arcades are still a touchstone for indies and AAA titles alike. Devs are still trying to recapture that skill-based advancement and competitive thrill. With the "casual bubbles" of the DS/Wii and then again on smartphones, the industry has learned that you need to provide some appeal to the casual market. Videogames can't live in a bubble. You need the filthy casuals' money. So devs started simplifying things and making them more pick-up-and-play and throwing in quicker respawns and bigger powerups and greater swings in character power. Gaming has turned back to its arcade roots because that's how you keep people playing your f2p online-only title.

I think it's fascinating. Videogames didn't have to ever become competitive. They could have just as well evolved into slightly-interactive movies and interactive books and interactive rhythm games and single-player puzzles and digital versions of boardgames, but for some reason people really gravitated toward challenging, competitive, pick-up-and-play games.
Click to expand...

It can truly be said that arcade games are video game design at its purest, most distilled and arguably fine-tuned level. They had to be designed for maximum fun by necessity, because if you wasted even two minutes on boring crap to set things up, you were losing players right off the bat to another game. That forced arcade games to be visually expressive, aurally expressive, and feature game mechanics that were not only fun, but easy to learn, intricate enough for depth, and use them in design that provided a challenge to master (preferably a fair challenge).

And it's like you say, almost every game today has some of that arcade DNA in them even if they don't know it. It's the cornerstone of the industry and it just makes me that much sadder how they've been left behind when there's honestly still so much potential with the market and the sort of gameplay it can facilitate. Like loop-based gameplay; only some of the manic shmups do that today and it's usually just in terms of very slight variations and making the gameplay tougher to increase score extends. And then you had the older arcade games that essentially looped until they became too difficult to realistically beat (or could even crash).

But I'd love if more games (not just shmups) really explored loop-based gameplay concepts more in-depth. I've got some ideas myself but I can't code so :( .
 
Husky

Husky

THE Prey 2 fanatic
I see someone's already mentioned Prey, the best FPS ever made, but you seen Prey 2? Open world parkour like Dying Light, and then some further mechanics we still haven't seen in any games. I wanna play that Agile Combat. God I fucking want Prey 2.
 
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Myrmonden

Myrmonden

Neo Member
Everything to Dreamcast from Sega was so ahead of the time it bankrupt them...
Not just the most classic Shenmue that also established so much we take for granted now, with e.g QTE and so on.
But also the games like Crazy Taxi, Jet Set Radio was cra cra when they arrived.
Phantasy star online was like the first console game with real working "MMO" feel to it.
Even Chu chu rocket was pretty innovative for it time, not just the gameplay but it having great working Internet gameplay.
 
Mista

Mista

Banned
Shenmue is the only answer for me

Yes MGS is there too but if I have to choose one I’ll always pick Shenmue
 
ROMhack

ROMhack

Member
Shenmue is the obvious one but sometimes I think it mostly capitalised on its humongous budget.

It being in 3D is the differentiation, but it feels like a few story-heavy point and click games released around the same time (e.g. The Longest Journey).
 
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I Love Rock 'n' Roll

I Love Rock 'n' Roll

Member
Virtua Racing, Virtua Fighter 1 2 3 4, Daytona USA, Night Trap, Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Quake, Sega Rally 1 2, SoulCalibur, Shenmue, Killer Instinct, Yoshi's Island, Dead Or Alive 2, Dragon's Lair, Shinobi, Super Mario Bros, Out Run, Space Harrier, Zelda 1, Ghost'n Goblins, Silpheed, Star Fox, Street Fighter 2 and 3, Art of Fighting 1. Samurai Shodown 1 2 3 4, kof, Garou, Phantasy Star Online, The last of us, The D, Myst, Heavently Sword, Final Fantasy 7, Shadow of the Colossus, Alone in the Dark, Another World, Wii Sports, Wii Feet.
 
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DunDunDunpachi

DunDunDunpachi

Banned
thicc_girls_are_teh_best said:
System Shock 1 (and its sequel, System Shock 2)

Descent

Exhumed/PowerSlave

...at least off the top of my head. There's arguably plenty of others though.



It can truly be said that arcade games are video game design at its purest, most distilled and arguably fine-tuned level. They had to be designed for maximum fun by necessity, because if you wasted even two minutes on boring crap to set things up, you were losing players right off the bat to another game. That forced arcade games to be visually expressive, aurally expressive, and feature game mechanics that were not only fun, but easy to learn, intricate enough for depth, and use them in design that provided a challenge to master (preferably a fair challenge).

And it's like you say, almost every game today has some of that arcade DNA in them even if they don't know it. It's the cornerstone of the industry and it just makes me that much sadder how they've been left behind when there's honestly still so much potential with the market and the sort of gameplay it can facilitate. Like loop-based gameplay; only some of the manic shmups do that today and it's usually just in terms of very slight variations and making the gameplay tougher to increase score extends. And then you had the older arcade games that essentially looped until they became too difficult to realistically beat (or could even crash).

But I'd love if more games (not just shmups) really explored loop-based gameplay concepts more in-depth. I've got some ideas myself but I can't code so :( .
Click to expand...
Some RPGs even include a "loop" but we call it New Game+. I like the idea of endlessly-replayable games. I think modern roguelikes are the closest thing we have to the repeating loops of the arcade (other than twitchy games inspired directly by arcades, obviously).
 
Kharnivore2099

Kharnivore2099

Member
Just a few here.

-Midwinter (1989) DOS/Amiga. The scope of the game is so impressive for the time.
-Alone in the Dark (1992) DOS. A realisation of horror in 3D environments 4 years before Capcom managed it.
-Shenmue (1999) Dreamcast. A proper 3D populated town and "realtime" clock.
-Ecstatica (1994) DOS. Maybe not so impressive since AITD was 2 years earlier, but worth mentioning.
-Karataka (1984) Apple II. Just look at it, nothing was like that at the time.
-Elite (1984) BBC Micro. A universe to explore on an 8-bit micro? WTF!
-Herzog Zwei (1989) Megadrive/Genesis. Real time strategy in a world of turn based titles.
-Wizardry and Ultima series (1981) Apple II. Basically inspired a whole genre and industry.
 
kyubajin

kyubajin

Member
Demon's Souls (2009) PS3. Weighted combat that defined the souls-like genre, story/lore told by items, punishing but fair difficulty, revolutionary asynchronous messaging and jolly-cooperation/invasions.
 
Perrott

Perrott

Member
Husky said:
I see someone's already mentioned Prey, the best FPS ever made, but you seen Prey 2? Open world parkour like Dying Light, and then some further mechanics we still haven't seen in any games. I wanna play that Agile Combat. God I fucking want Prey 2.
Click to expand...

Well, that's Mirror's Edge (2008) parkour over there, not Dying Light's.
 
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-Arcadia-

-Arcadia-

Banned
4U8w5pP.jpg


Ocarina of Time.

It’s pretty normal today, but at the time, it felt mindblowing to have a game with this kind of scale. From the environments, to the adventure itself, everything felt enormous and absolutely immersive.

Add in fantastic cutscenes (shoutout to MGS at about the same time as well), visuals, gameplay, features, and a polished feel that just seemed beyond anything else at the time, and it just felt like an impossible game.

I think that’s why its legacy persists so much, even twenty years on. It’s a pretty regular Zelda game now (albeit with some very special touches), but for anyone that played it in its time, it felt like the gaming equivalent of seeing the original Star Wars for the first time.

Which I suppose is also a dated reference. :messenger_tears_of_joy: You get what I mean, though.
 
ROMhack

ROMhack

Member
-Arcadia- said:
Ocarina of Time.

It’s pretty normal today, but at the time, it felt mindblowing to have a game with this kind of scale. From the environments, to the adventure itself, everything felt enormous and absolutely immersive.

Add in fantastic cutscenes (shoutout to MGS at about the same time as well), visuals, gameplay, features, and a polished feel that just seemed beyond anything else at the time, and it just felt like an impossible game.

I think that’s why its legacy persists so much, even twenty years on. It’s a pretty regular Zelda game now (albeit with some very special touches), but for anyone that played it in its time, it felt like the gaming equivalent of seeing the original Star Wars for the first time.

Which I suppose is also a dated reference. :messenger_tears_of_joy: You get what I mean, though.
Click to expand...

Yes this. The overblown nostalgia tends to get in the way of debate but it was genuinely mind-blowing at the time.
The atmosphere felt unique and unlike any game I'd played at the time. Those moments like when you said goodbye to Saria after leaving Kokiri Forest were really poignant.
 
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pineapplepizza

pineapplepizza

Member
There's tons every decade so I'm going to stick to 3D games from late 90's to early 00's;

Max Payne [2001] - (bullet-time)

Jurassic Park: Trespasser [1998] - (physics, boobs when you look down, no HUD, sort of sandbox, character yells out how many bullets she thinks a weapon pickup has and counts)

Quake 3 Arena [1999] - (pioneer in countless ways including shaping internet multiplayer FPS and e-sports (tournaments with prize money))

Counter-Strike [2000] - (same as above ^)
 
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Elektro Demon

Elektro Demon

Banned
Shenmue. There was nothing on the market quite like it at the time.
Prey. The portal mechanics were very ahead of it's time.
Half life 2. Dem physics.
Crysis. It was a mediocre game imo, but it's graphics were way ahead of it's time.
Mgs1 on the ps1. In game cutscenes brah with that kind of quality and polish.
Vanquish. This game has one of the most unique combat systems ever made. It's a shame it sold so poorly. Wy ahead of it's time.
 
nowhat

nowhat

Member
Ultima Underworld. It's way too underappreciated.

Released a full year and a half before Doom, the engine was superior in many ways. You could look up and down, and the levels could have vertically overlapping elements in them (like bridges that you can go under). Sure, the mouse-based controls feel very odd nowadays (WASD wasn't a thing until many years later) and it doesn't exactly look great today. But back then, a 3D RPG was something phenomenal.
 
Fbh

Fbh

Member
Chrono Trigger.
I don't think it invented any of these things but it was still a JRPG with:
- No random encounters
- Multiple endings you can trigger at different points in the story
- New game +
- Enemies that move around during combat with their positioning being relevant for some attacks
- Combination attacks between all characters


You'd imagine that after the game came out to a lot of praise and success it would sort of feel as a stepping stone for JRPG's to come. But then we went on to the Ps1 and while visuals advanced, the gameplay and features in a lot of the big and popular JRPG's of the era felt lacking in comparison.
 
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JordanN

JordanN

Banned
pfQoP5i.jpg


Driver 2 is still the gold standard of open world gameplay.

Even though it looks "ugly" today, I completely forgive the graphics because the driving physics just remain unparalleled.

The same game also packs 4 real world locations (Chicago, Las Vegas, Havana, Rio). Can you imagine any developer trying to do that today?
 
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