Most influential games.
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Won't argue with a lot of the choices here but I might put in another quickie: Alien8 / KnightLore for the ZX Spectrum pretty much invented the isometric 3d puzzle-adventure game and opened up a huge genre. In a sense you could draw a line directly from them to Tomb Raider
Also - who invented the 'double jump'? You could argue that it's game mechanics like that which have the biggest influence rather than individual games. Other examples might be 'jumping on top of monsters to kill them', 'health packs', 'spawn points' and similar core mechanics.
Also - who invented the 'double jump'? You could argue that it's game mechanics like that which have the biggest influence rather than individual games. Other examples might be 'jumping on top of monsters to kill them', 'health packs', 'spawn points' and similar core mechanics.
Quake - The first game to bring full, billboard-free 3D into everyone's house. It was also the game that made "deathmatch" a Thing.
Myst - Straight-up puzzle solvers have definitely seen their winter at this point, but this game's influence is still everywhere.
Grand Theft Auto III - This game brought "open world, there are no rules" play to the mainstream.
Resident Evil - Created the survival horror genre.
World of Warcraft - As someone already pointed out, this one needs to explanation.
Those are the games I can think of off the top of my head.
Myst - Straight-up puzzle solvers have definitely seen their winter at this point, but this game's influence is still everywhere.
Grand Theft Auto III - This game brought "open world, there are no rules" play to the mainstream.
Resident Evil - Created the survival horror genre.
World of Warcraft - As someone already pointed out, this one needs to explanation.
Those are the games I can think of off the top of my head.
Oh boy. There's been lots. Alas, my perspective is PC centric, although I know about the Marios and the Zeldas and the what nots.
RPGS - Ultima and Wizardry are the seminal classics of the genre. Do you play RPGS? The RPGS you are playing were heavily influenced by one or both of these games. Ultima pushed elaborately detailed open worlds, NPC schedules, and thematic/plot rich stories. Wizardry was more on the "big party, tactical dungeon crawl" side of things. The Elder Scrolls is basically Ultima's spiritual successor, although it's still struggling to catch up on the thematic depth. Wizardry's impact hasn't been felt as much lately, although it was strong in the late 80's and through the 90's. Series like Bard's Tale, Wasteland, Might and Magic, Dungeon Master, etc were all PURE Wizardry. The only recent entrant in that genre is deliberate throwback Legend of Grimrock, although you could argue that the FPS/dungeon crawl hybrid that came up via Ultima Underworld owed much to Wizardry.
Later highly influential RPGS: Baldur's Gate 2, Planescape Torment, Diablo
FPS - Doom and Half Life 2. You could argue Wolfenstein over Doom, but Doom felt more like the watershed moment. And almost every FPS post Half Life 2 has been HEAVILY informed by its design.
The FPS is a relatively new genre, although some of the later heavily hybridized games are becoming influential in their own right, most specifically System Shock 2 (which birthed the Bioshocks and arguably Dead Space as well) and Deus Ex.
STRATEGY - I want to say XCOM, but other than Jagged Alliance and Jagged Alliance 2 and Silent Storm and its own eventual remake...yeah okay XCOM. Also Civilization. Really though the great grandaddy of strategy games is like...M.U.L.E. Will Wright even taps it as his most influential game of all time. You could even toss in "The Ancient Art of War" for RTS buffs, although the high watermark of that genre remains Starcraft.
MMOS - For basic game play modeling and design, Everquest remains the single most influential MMO ever made. For UI design, visual style, and supplementary game play elements WoW is the kingpin of the genre and has been ceaselessly aped. Together they are basically the alpha and omega of MMO design and their respective runaway successes are 95% responsible for the stagnation of the MMORPG genre.
ADVENTURE - People are STILL basically doing King's Quest, just with progressively newer hats.
RPGS - Ultima and Wizardry are the seminal classics of the genre. Do you play RPGS? The RPGS you are playing were heavily influenced by one or both of these games. Ultima pushed elaborately detailed open worlds, NPC schedules, and thematic/plot rich stories. Wizardry was more on the "big party, tactical dungeon crawl" side of things. The Elder Scrolls is basically Ultima's spiritual successor, although it's still struggling to catch up on the thematic depth. Wizardry's impact hasn't been felt as much lately, although it was strong in the late 80's and through the 90's. Series like Bard's Tale, Wasteland, Might and Magic, Dungeon Master, etc were all PURE Wizardry. The only recent entrant in that genre is deliberate throwback Legend of Grimrock, although you could argue that the FPS/dungeon crawl hybrid that came up via Ultima Underworld owed much to Wizardry.
Later highly influential RPGS: Baldur's Gate 2, Planescape Torment, Diablo
FPS - Doom and Half Life 2. You could argue Wolfenstein over Doom, but Doom felt more like the watershed moment. And almost every FPS post Half Life 2 has been HEAVILY informed by its design.
The FPS is a relatively new genre, although some of the later heavily hybridized games are becoming influential in their own right, most specifically System Shock 2 (which birthed the Bioshocks and arguably Dead Space as well) and Deus Ex.
STRATEGY - I want to say XCOM, but other than Jagged Alliance and Jagged Alliance 2 and Silent Storm and its own eventual remake...yeah okay XCOM. Also Civilization. Really though the great grandaddy of strategy games is like...M.U.L.E. Will Wright even taps it as his most influential game of all time. You could even toss in "The Ancient Art of War" for RTS buffs, although the high watermark of that genre remains Starcraft.
MMOS - For basic game play modeling and design, Everquest remains the single most influential MMO ever made. For UI design, visual style, and supplementary game play elements WoW is the kingpin of the genre and has been ceaselessly aped. Together they are basically the alpha and omega of MMO design and their respective runaway successes are 95% responsible for the stagnation of the MMORPG genre.
ADVENTURE - People are STILL basically doing King's Quest, just with progressively newer hats.
Only very recently. You could argue MOTB was influenced by Planescape, but as it was largely made by the same people I think you were just seeing their particular stamp carried forward. Now, though, we have a legion of kickstarted RPGs all promising to be the next Planescape, so its influence is finally being felt.stormeris said:So the game isn't really influential then
I do argue about Resident Evil. It did not create survival horror just mainstreamed it tbh. games like clocktower for the snes do come to mind.DocHarley said:
I think GTAIII, Half-Life and maybe Shenmue? (I can't figure out who was reaponsible for QTE, but Shenmue was one of the first big ones, but it might have been RE4). As much as i dislike GTA and Half-Life, there's nondenying that they had a huge impact on AAA game design, i believe Half-Life is one of the biggest reasons why most AAA action games sucks these days, it made it all more about rollercoaster rides and scripted events than actual gameplay. If anything, it single handledly destroyed the FPS genre :/ and you can see traces of this game in lost AAA action and adventure games these days.
Oh and GTA is obviously mentioned for popularising the old sandbox formula that every single sandbox game has used since GTAIII was released.
Oh and GTA is obviously mentioned for popularising the old sandbox formula that every single sandbox game has used since GTAIII was released.
I'd love to agree with people about the perfection that Portal and Planescape: Torment were, but I don't think they were influential, just amazing games. To look at the question of "influential" I would say:
Final Fantasy VII: Marked the re-emergence of RPG's (not just JRPGS, but even, to an extent WRPGs/CRPGs) back into prominence, allowing for many good RPG releases on North American consoles and generating more interest in the CRPG genre. I think one of the reasons that Baldur's Gate was successful is because people re-discovered RPG's with FFVII and wanted more.
Call or Duty 4: Modern Warfare: The only good CoD game, in my opinion, and, despite all my hatred of every single other CoD or MoW style game, I have to admit that I absolutely loved playing this one. It took a (bad) genre out of its need to play everything in the 1940's and moved it into a more modern day, when publisher execs said that it shouldn't work, and it worked. It worked, perhaps, too well, spawning a never ending series of terrible knock-offs.
Tomb Raider (original: Really, this is one of the original "3D Action Adventure" titles. It showed that you could have some platforming, some action, and some exploration in one game and it did it very well for it's era. On the other hand, you had, in the same period, Super Mario 64 which was all platforming, and, I think, far less interesting or influential.
Amnesia: The Dark Descent: I think how influential this one is is playing out right now. For years it was hard to find an actual survival horror title that was either about survival or horror and Amnesia did it to a tee. Even established franchises like Silent Hill were degrading down the Dead Space path. Amnesia has brought us a slew of games that rely more on atmosphere than action and that's a good thing. Whether you prefer Outlast or Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, they wouldn't be here without Amnesia: The Dark Descent.
Demon's Souls: Maybe this is wishful thinking, but I can't imagine a title that is more the antithesis to the modern publisher concern that is "OMG GAMES CAN'T BE HARD." Demon's Souls proved that unforgiving gameplay is, not just wanted by the gaming community, but far more rewarding. Obviously, Demon's Souls lead to the cross platform success of Dark Souls, but I think it is also the catalyst for allowing a return to old-school difficulties found in games like Bioshock: Infinite (1999 Mode) and X-Com: Enemy Unknown 2012 (Classic and Impossible).
Final Fantasy VII: Marked the re-emergence of RPG's (not just JRPGS, but even, to an extent WRPGs/CRPGs) back into prominence, allowing for many good RPG releases on North American consoles and generating more interest in the CRPG genre. I think one of the reasons that Baldur's Gate was successful is because people re-discovered RPG's with FFVII and wanted more.
Call or Duty 4: Modern Warfare: The only good CoD game, in my opinion, and, despite all my hatred of every single other CoD or MoW style game, I have to admit that I absolutely loved playing this one. It took a (bad) genre out of its need to play everything in the 1940's and moved it into a more modern day, when publisher execs said that it shouldn't work, and it worked. It worked, perhaps, too well, spawning a never ending series of terrible knock-offs.
Tomb Raider (original: Really, this is one of the original "3D Action Adventure" titles. It showed that you could have some platforming, some action, and some exploration in one game and it did it very well for it's era. On the other hand, you had, in the same period, Super Mario 64 which was all platforming, and, I think, far less interesting or influential.
Amnesia: The Dark Descent: I think how influential this one is is playing out right now. For years it was hard to find an actual survival horror title that was either about survival or horror and Amnesia did it to a tee. Even established franchises like Silent Hill were degrading down the Dead Space path. Amnesia has brought us a slew of games that rely more on atmosphere than action and that's a good thing. Whether you prefer Outlast or Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, they wouldn't be here without Amnesia: The Dark Descent.
Demon's Souls: Maybe this is wishful thinking, but I can't imagine a title that is more the antithesis to the modern publisher concern that is "OMG GAMES CAN'T BE HARD." Demon's Souls proved that unforgiving gameplay is, not just wanted by the gaming community, but far more rewarding. Obviously, Demon's Souls lead to the cross platform success of Dark Souls, but I think it is also the catalyst for allowing a return to old-school difficulties found in games like Bioshock: Infinite (1999 Mode) and X-Com: Enemy Unknown 2012 (Classic and Impossible).
Heroes of Might and Magic II - was the springboard that gave us Heroes of Might and Magic III and almost every single fantasy turn based game thereafter.
Ultima: Underworld - if you've played it you'll damn well remember it.
Warcraft: Orcs and Humans - the game that started it all and put Blizzard on the map.
Starcraft - it's a national sport in South Korea, people.
Grand Theft Auto - potentially the only damn game every single Republican knows exists.
Street Fighter II - Not a single arcade in the world hasn't had this beauty in it.
Ultima: Underworld - if you've played it you'll damn well remember it.
Warcraft: Orcs and Humans - the game that started it all and put Blizzard on the map.
Starcraft - it's a national sport in South Korea, people.
Grand Theft Auto - potentially the only damn game every single Republican knows exists.
Street Fighter II - Not a single arcade in the world hasn't had this beauty in it.
In chronological order:
1) Pac-Man: It might not have started the video game craze, but Pac was gaming's first superstar.
2) Super Mario Bros. II (the US version/Doki Doki Panic convert): At one point this game...an NES title mind you, was retailing at $100. ONE. HUNDRED. DOLLARS. The original price-gouge in gaming because every kid wanted this game.
3) Street Fighter II: This game made the arcade into a million dollar industry, at the time way above and beyond the console market. It also sparked the "Vs." fighting game genre- games like Tekken, MK, DOA and pretty much the entire eSports scene owes a thank you to SF2.
4) Grand Theft Auto III: For reasons I don't think I need to explain.
1) Pac-Man: It might not have started the video game craze, but Pac was gaming's first superstar.
2) Super Mario Bros. II (the US version/Doki Doki Panic convert): At one point this game...an NES title mind you, was retailing at $100. ONE. HUNDRED. DOLLARS. The original price-gouge in gaming because every kid wanted this game.
3) Street Fighter II: This game made the arcade into a million dollar industry, at the time way above and beyond the console market. It also sparked the "Vs." fighting game genre- games like Tekken, MK, DOA and pretty much the entire eSports scene owes a thank you to SF2.
4) Grand Theft Auto III: For reasons I don't think I need to explain.
Sorry, we are in basic agreement, but what I meant by popularity is that the FPS genre is now so old that you can't just talk about the one or two games that started it all, you have to look at games along the road as well. A modern FPS will share some of its DNA with Doom but there are a whole ton of gameplay mechanics which make it a different experience; regenerating health, narratives told without cut-scenes, linearity. You wouldn't argue that Super Mario Bros wasn't influencial because Donkey Kong had already invented that platformer.Maximum Bert said:
Maximum Bert said:
The term was coined in reference to Resident Evil, yes, but there were very similar games that came before. Project Firestart on the Commodore 64 has basically every element that would come to define the genre, from the long build-up to the first monster, scattered diary entries expositing plot, a focus on exploration and random blood splattered corpses everywhere.DocHarley said:
Still, Resident Evil is probably the most directly influential horror game, possibly matched only by the original Alone in the Dark (which preceded it and may have been an influence on it).
I wanted to argue for those (Knight Lore spawned a million imitators almost overnight, of which Head Over Heels was undoubtedly the best), but... this is an American-led forum and as such nothing that happened on the ZX Spectrum matters. There was the Crash, then the NES, and nothing else that mattered around then.Flatfrog said:
You and I both know that it's false. But as long as people continue to argue that Nintendo saved the industry - an industry that was in absolutely no danger whatsoever in the UK, thanks to the ZX Spectrum, bedroom coders and the cassette tape - arguing for the influence of any Spectrum software or hardware is a waste off time round here.
Besides, Ant Attack got to isometric first.
Resident Evil is far more influential than all of the named survival horror games that came before it. Remember, we're talking about influential games and not seminal games. Just because something came before doesn't make it influential.
It has to break into the medium and influence other games to really be influential.
It has to break into the medium and influence other games to really be influential.
;-)Alarien said:That seriously earns an LOL. No, I love it. Great comment.Kinitawowi said:
It was actually inspired by something I read a while ago, noting how many modern games can trace their influence back to three arcade classics; the FPS owes a debt to Space Invaders, that FIFA game that sells billions every year is a distant descendent of Pong, and the article claimed that the "run away and hide" approach of Pacman was one that kinda disappeared until the survival horror genre picked it back up. Add in D&D (nobody said they had to be video games, especially one as important as this) - which, with a minor respray and added graphics, has ascended through every RPG format ever - and Colossal Cave, which would become the text adventures of the 80s (I refuse to use the phrase "interactive fiction") and in turn the LucasArts games of the 90s and the Telltale remakes of the 00s, and you've covered most of the modern sphere with just five landmark games.