System Shock (1994)

The game that started it all as far as story driven action and sci-fi shooters are concerned. Yes, we are talking about System Shock. At the time of its release, it garnered good reviews and slowly but surely built a cult following. System Shock is ahead of its time in many ways, blending cyberpunk elements with horror. Players take control of a nameless protagonist who wishes to put a stop to the nefarious AI SHODAN. It may be difficult for modern gamers to get into the swing of things, but it is worth it.

]]> 598903 https://gamingbolt.com/15-amazing-games-that-were-ahead-of-their-time Fri, 10 May 2024 17:32:56 +0000 https://gamingbolt.com/?p=586518 There’s no way the 15 games included in this feature can be exhaustive. Video games as a medium, as an artform, is typified by boundary pushing. The 15 here are noteworthy for pushing things along, for genuinely innovating, and – in some cases – for being brave in how they told their story or the subject matter they tackled.

Max Payne

Max Payne raised the bar for cinematic action in video games, appropriating the style of John Woo’s gun fu movies. Of course, we can’t talk about Max Payne’s innovativeness without referencing its bullet time mechanic – an ability to transform shootouts into slomo bloodshed. Max Payne’s bullet time was clearly indebted to The Matrix, and whilst it wasn’t the first video game to feature bullet time it was the first to do it with such effortless swagger.

System Shock

The ways in which System Shock was ahead of the curve are numerous: it’s exploration of prescient themes centring on artificial intelligence, transhumanism, ascension, and the human soul is still grimly thought-provoking; its physics engine revolutionised how objects act in 3D spaces; its morally grey antagonist grounded its fantastical setting; it’s emphasis on player choice and options to avoid combat via ground-breaking hacking abilities. System Shock is an all-time classic, inspiring Prey, Dishonored, Portal, to name a few.

Outcast

A fully explorable open world appearing two years before Grand Theft Auto III isn’t why Outcast is ahead of its time. No, this 1999 sci-fi cult classic delivered immersion by the bucketload, far above anything that had come before. NPC conversation was integral to the narrative, but each had daily routines to follow, opinions on each other, and opinions on you the player. An early example of a reputation system, NPCs will help or hinder you based on how well you’ve treated them. Enemy soldiers are progressively weakened by lack of food or resources too, the result of activities you complete for the leaders of each region.

Red Dead Redemption 2

Much like Outcast some two decades prior, Red Dead Redemption 2 set new precedents for immersive open world story telling. It’s gorgeous grassland plains, swamps, and misty mountaintops encouraged horseback exploration; fast travel was not the optimal way to get around. Rockstar deliberately culled the pace of Red Dead’s sequel, stuffing the open world with a smorgasbord of side activities and random encounters. Open world games released today are struggling to reach the levels of freedom Red Dead Redemption 2 presented.

Mirror’s Edge

Flowstate is a remarkable thing when it happens in games. The sense of body and mind working in tandem, fluidly, uninterrupted. Games had toyed with parkour before Mirror’s Edge but none elicited the serene flowstate Mirror’s Edge did. This is in large part to its first-person perspective, it’s almost texture-less clean lines and minimal, distraction free colour palette switching between bright white and bold primary colours. Dying Light comes close, but the innovativeness of Mirror’s Edge is tough to beat.

Metal Gear Solid

An absolute genre-defining masterpiece, Metal Gear Solid changed perceptions of what video games could be via its unashamedly cinematic approach to storytelling, it’s ground-breaking stealth gameplay, and ingenious fourth wall breaking shenanigans. Never had a video game toyed with the player as much as Metal Gear Solid; etching Meryl’s codec frequency into the game’s physical CD case, or – most famously – the Psycho Mantis battle requiring players’ switch controller ports to evade his mind-reading ability.

Shadow of the Colossus

Originally released in 2005 at a time when video game contingent was still debating if the medium could be considered art. Contemplative, bleak, beautiful, befuddling Shadow of the Colossus put that contest to rest via minimal storytelling told ostensibly through environmental puzzles masquerading as boss battles. There really was nothing like it at the time. A wholly unique experience with an ending, like some of the world’s greatest art, wide open to interpretation.

Red Faction

Remarkably ground-breaking for its Geo-Mod technology was Red Faction. It’s incredible how much destruction developer Volition managed to build into its gameplay, and whilst there was a multiplayer component to the game the single player campaign was treated to this bar-raising destruction tech too. Players could reshape the world around them with unparalleled freedom. See a locked door? Blast a hole in the surrounding rock. Want to infiltrate a guarded building? Fashion underground tunnels with rocket launchers. Prior games included scripted destruction, but Red Faction was the first to grant players pure unscripted world-altering capabilities.

Shenmue

Sure, Shenmue’s stately slice of Japanese life divides fans and critics to this day, but the developer’s ambition for what they hoped would become a sprawling series was certainly ahead of its time. Introducing the concept of open world game design to mass audiences (well, Dreamcast players at least), Shenmue heightened immersion through its day and night cycles, NPCs with jobs and routines, and dynamic weather. The interactivity inherent in its detailed world cemented Shenmue as a trailblazer too, ranging from mundanely examining the objects of a kitchen drawer to hitting the arcades for some vintage game time.

Prototype

Prototype’s Alex Mercer is the perfect anti-hero. It’s as simple as that. So many powers and abilities are stuffed into his skillset that there was no more powerful a feeling possible in games than raising utter carnage in downtown Manhattan and barely feeling a scratch from an army desperate to stop you. In blending shapeshifting, superhero-esque aerial acrobatics, offensive and defensive body augmentations, thermal vision, guns, tanks, and helicopters, Radical Entertainment risked Prototype being a sludge of mechanics. Instead, Prototype is a blast; combining so many combat mechanics seamlessly truly was an achievement ahead of its time.

Battlezone

Never had a game merged first-person action, real-time strategy, base building, and tank simulation as cohesively as 1998’s Battlezone. Whilst the similar-in-scope Uprising: Join or Die released a year earlier it didn’t have the same sense of finesse that Activision’s effort exuded. Battlezone dripped in atmosphere, featured dynamic missions inside an engaging dual-perspective campaign, and – crucially given its melding of disparate genres – a sleek interface innovative for its simplicity.

RAGE

You can debate until you’re blue in the face on the memorability of RAGE. It brought legendary developer id Software back from the brink of mediocrity, but it’s shooting, premise, enemies, story – all middle-of-the-road at least. A solid 7/10. RAGE though had an ace up its sleeve: megatexturing. This tech wasn’t new at the time, but thanks to game engine id Tech 5 RAGE’s environment artists were able to build in an endless stream of unique textures. Dynamic scaling based on PC capability kept the game running at 60fps too; another feature prevalent nowadays but none-too-common back in 2011.

Syndicate

1993’s Syndicate put you in command of four trenchcoated, mirror-shaded cyborgs undertaking a corporation’s nefarious dealings via the trigger of a minigun. Gameplaywise, you’d take to the streets – early examples of living cities – to assassinate, coerce, rescue, or destroy, depending on your objective and whims. There was intelligence beneath the bloodshed too, a satirical mirror exposing the tunnel vision of rampant consumerism. Grand Theft Auto took these themes and ran with it, but Syndicate was the first to do it.

Far Cry 2

If Far Cry 2 were released today, it might be criticised for an overly minimalist approach to open world game design that’s become much more commonplace than it was back in 2008 when it originally released. Thing is, it’s Far Cry 2 that arguably started this trend. A true pinnacle of emergent gameplay, zones aren’t acquired like a shopping list and NPCs don’t tend to function as quest givers. Instead, it’s up to you to head into the bush a cause your own trouble, but beware as guns often malfunction, exploded vehicles cause rampant bushfires, healing is strictly limited. Far Cry 2 had the confidence here to blend FPS with survival mechanics, with Metal Gear Solid V, Fallout 4, and The Forest to name a few taking many leaves out of its book.

Silent Hill 2

Dealing with mature, taboo, brushed under the carpet subject matter in such visceral ways; intrinsically linking a character’s innermost desires and torment to gameplay, to monsters encountered; in crafting an atmosphere so noxious it chokes you – these are all reasons why Silent Hill 2 is an ahead of its time masterpiece, and stands the test of time some 22 years later. In a way, Silent Hill 2 is experimental; for one, its story is told extremely subtly. A very hands-off approach which many developers, plus Konami themselves, haven’t learned from.

DRAGON’S DOGMA 2

Most companies developing a long-awaited sequel to a relatively niche game that was considered too opaque by many who played it would have tried to streamline things to appeal to a broader crowd, but with Dragon’s Dogma 2, Capcom not only stuck to its original vision, it doubled down on it. Whether its through its lack of quest guidance, the by-design unreliability of its autosaves, its limited fast travel options, or mechanics such as Dragonsplague, Dragon’s Dogma 2 is all about creating engagement and memorable gameplay through an abundance of friction. Something like that can easily break an entire experience, but Dragon’s Dogma 2 thrives with that approach.

ELDEN RING

Elden Ring obviously had to be on this list. FromSoftware’s design ethos has always revolved around offering players as little guidance as possible, something that has enabled some truly excellent experiences over the years, and that same philosophy enables Elden Ring to craft a spectacular open world. Funnily enough, with its generous checkpointing and fast travel system, Elden Ring actually feels more hospitable than previous From titles in some regards, but the feeling of absolute freedom to go anywhere in its massive, gorgeous, intimidating world isn’t something that many other games have been able to nail in the past- or at least not nearly as well as Elden Ring did.

THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: TEARS OF THE KINGDOM

Even if Tears of the Kingdom had been a cut-paste follow-up to Breath of the Wild, its open world experience would have merited it a place on this feature, with the whole point of these games being to place no restrictions and offer no suggestions to players about how they should play. All of that is, of course, present and accounted for in Tears– but this is also a significantly larger and more complex game than its predecessor, which makes it that much more impressive to see how well it balances its lack of handholding and how easy it is to grasp its core concepts. Tears of the Kingdom very rarely nudges you in any specific direction, because it has the confidence that no matter what you do, you’re going to end up having fun- and honestly, that confidence is well earned.

OUTER WILDS

Outer Wilds is obviously not your typical open world game, to the extent that labelling it as an open world experience almost feels inaccurate, even if it isn’t on paper. How it’s structured has a huge hand in that. As you go through multiple, repeated 22-minute loops and explore more and more of its mysterious space setting, the pieces of its narrative puzzle slowly start falling into place, and as its many fans will tell you, that’s only as effective as it is because the game goes out of its way to stay out of yours. You’re the master of your own destiny in Outer Wilds, and the game simply cannot be praised enough for how confidently it gives you the freedom to unravel its tantalizing mysterious however you wish.

SUBNAUTICA

In Subnautica, you crash on an alien planet and find yourself in hostile underwater locations. Your only objective? Survive, and find a way off-world. How you choose to do that in its oceanic setting is left up to you. Braving the surreal yet alien depths of its underwater locations, you constantly have an abundance of choices to make, with very little restrictions placed on you in where you want to go, what you want to explore, or what you want to build. The fact that the game manages to have the balanced progression curve that it does in spite of how hands-off it is for the vast majority of the times probably doesn’t get as much recognition as it should.

SONS OF THE FOREST

Sons of the Forest isn’t a friendly game. It’s setting is brutal and harsh, it’s brimming with nightmare-fuel of the scariest kind, and mechanically, it’s not afraid to piss you off with how opaque it can be from time to time. But though all of that could easily turn many people off, its harshness is exactly what makes Sons of the Forest the brilliant game that it is. Every second you spent on its cannibal-infested island is the definition of a waking nightmare, and the fact that the game makes no effort to make that experience even slightly pleasant for you only makes its terrifying offerings stand out in memory that much more.

OUTCAST

Easily one of the oldest games on this list, but a feature like this one would be incomplete without any mention of Outcast. Recognized as one of the first true open world games ever made, above all else, Outcast emphasized immersion. A lot of that came through the use of diegetic elements rather than the overreliance on UI that modern open world titles have become known for, which, paired with the game’s focus on player freedom and agency, made for a game that, for its time, felt truly limitless. Obviously, it had a great deal of technical issues (especially if you play it today, even if you’re playing the remaster), but from a design perspective, it was very much ahead of its time.

METRO EXODUS

Metro Exodus isn’t a fully open world game, instead letting players explore a series of larger, semi-open maps, but it uses its openness to great effect, because never does it feel like it’s inundating you with pointless, filler content, or offering excessive guidance in what to do, or how to do the things that you’re doing. That was, of course, the case with its predecessors as well, but Metro Exodus takes those elements and cranks them up to eleven. Conserving ammo, dealing with the dangers of a post-nuclear wasteland, finding your way around environments, and hell, even using a map- almost nothing in this game feels “gamified”, for the lack of a better word.

KENSHI

Kenshi is definitely a flawed game, especially from a technical perspective, but if you’re aching for an open world RPG sandbox that lets you have whatever kind of adventure you want, it’s well worth a look. The level of systemic and mechanical depth on offer here is almost staggering, to the extent that it can be a bit much in the early hours, but once you get to grips with it, it’s hard not to be taken aback by the agency that you as a player are constantly afforded in Kenshi.

ARK: SURVIVAL EVOLVED

Like a few other survival games (some of which are on this list), Ark: Survival Evolved prides itself on being almost entirely devoid of handholding, to the extent that it can be almost intimidating to completely new players jumping in for the first time. Its large, unforgiving open world is brimming with a variety of different challenging, and figuring out not only how to get past them, but even learning what those challenges are, is left entirely to you and your ability to explore, discover things, and improve at the game.

VALHEIM

Yep, another survival game- this is a a genre that lends itself incredibly well to the no-handholding philosophy. Valheim is admittedly a little bit more welcoming than a lot of the other games we’ve spoken about on this feature, but even so, when you first jump in, the game tells you awfully little about how to move things forward. Thankfully, everything from combat to exploration to gathering resources to building your bases is a hell of a lot of fun in Valheim, so even when the game’s being a bit opaque about what it wants you to do, it’s still a hell of a lot of fun.

In 2018, THQ Nordic acquired a spate of IPs and studios, to the point that it almost became a meme. It seems like they have no intention of letting up any time soon in 2019 either, because they just announced that they have acquired the rights to the Outcast IP. The IP was, most recently, in the control of its original creators, who had put out the game Outcast: Second Contact, a remake of the original game for modern consoles and PC.

It remains to be seen how THQ Nordic utilizes the once pioneering open world IP (or if it even utilizes it—the publisher has previously stated it doesn’t intend to use every single one of the 100+ IPs that it currently owns). While the series has its fans, I don’t know if there are enough of those, or if it is even unique and appealing enough in and of itself now, to be a worthwhile proposition, financially speaking, in today’s market.

But that’s all me speculating. Hopefully THQ Nordic does something worthwhile with it.