Gaming has changed in many ways over the years, but the biggest changes have been driven by the release of some groundbreaking games. When one of these monumental games comes out, you can always tell by the number of games that imitate it soon after. These eight games were not only great in their own right, they reshaped gaming as a whole.
Think we missed one? Tell us what it is in the comments!
Resident Evil
When Resident Evil hit the PlayStation in 1996, no one was making survival horror games, but that quickly changed. Instead of the bullet and health pack heavy maps of most shooters of the day, Resident Evil embraced a resource-poor approach that forced gamers to completely change how they played the game. No longer could you simply spray bullets until you ran out of targets. Instead, you were counting every shot, hoarding herbs, and hoping that you wouldn’t run into trouble when you were down to your last few shots. These elements were standard fare in the genre for years to come, all thanks to Resident Evil.
Super Mario 64
Platformers were all the rage in the 1990s, as gamers couldn’t get enough of the 2D side-scrolling action. That is, until Super Mario 64 came along and shook up the genre by taking it in into the world of 3D. Helped by the inclusion of an analog stick on the Nintendo 64 controller, Super Mario 64 let players jump, flip, and move the camera around to get a better view from pretty much any angle. As an added bonus, the 3D world allowed for larger worlds and more secret areas, meaning more replay value. If you’ve played any 3D platformer since 1996, Super Mario 64 helped inspire it at some level.
Half-Life
Before Half-Life, most shooters starred heroes who followed the action movie tropes of the 1990s, spouting wisecracks and kicking ass (Duke Nukem, anyone?). But Valve decided to try something different. They had their protagonist be a completely silent character, with only a name. In essence, he was a blank slate that the player’s persona was projected onto. Since Gordon Freeman didn’t speak, the story had to be told in a way that didn’t involve him, and so Valve eschewed cutscenes and had the story told organically through the game. It was a masterpiece that not only revolutionized heroes and narratives, it changed the action genre forever.
Halo: Combat Evolved
Prior to 2001, shooters were primarily PC games, mostly because console control schemes were a mess. That all changed with the release of Halo: Combat Evolved. While it wasn’t revolutionary on the PC, Halo completely changed the landscape of console shooters forever by embracing twin stick controls. The recharging shield meter was a huge change that allowed players more survival, leading to less frustration. It also had the best AI and game physics of any console shooter to date, and introduced console players to the idea of LAN play. Thanks to Halo, consoles have been fertile ground for shooters ever since.
Grand Theft Auto III
In 2001, most games were fairly linear. While you might be able to find secret areas or items, the beginning and end of the level was clearly delineated. Grand Theft Auto III tossed that concept out the window and introduced gamers to what a truly open world game could look like. Liberty City was huge, and offered side quests, collectibles, and even story for players to interact with. In testament to how engaging the open world was, it was not unusual for players to ignore the story and just spend hours running around the city fighting cops and goofing off. It was a formula that we’ve seen embraced by countless developers since.
World of Warcraft
In 2004, Blizzard was still best known for their work in the real-time strategy genre. But in November of that year, World of Warcraft hit stores and changed the genre forever. Prior to the release of WoW, MMOs were a niche genre, with the largest of them sporting player counts around 300,000. World of Warcraft’s sales were so astronomical that Blizzard had to have stores pull the game off shelves until they could add server capacity. By the end of 2005, they had over five million subscribers, and the growth kept coming. WoW made MMOs player-friendly and easy to understand, and people flocked to their banner. The genre has been huge ever since.
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
The Call of Duty series was somewhat in trouble after 2006’s Call of Duty 3. Sales had fallen off by roughly 50 percent from Call of Duty 2, and the fourth installment was a key one if the series was to continue. Developer Infinity Ward not only delivered an outstanding game, it blew the lid off the genre, selling over 13 million copies. Not only did they take the series out of World War II and bring it to the modern era, they crafted a stellar single-player campaign that included plenty of twists. It was the catalyst for the RPG elements that are included in nearly every shooter today, along with being one of the most well-received shooters of all time.
Doom
Perhaps no title has had a bigger impact on the world of gaming than id Software’s famous shooter, Doom. Doom embraced the first-person perspective, building on id’s work with Wolfenstein 3D. Doom not only looked better than its predecessor, it played better as well. Environments reacted to players, and the enemies were driven by cutting-edge AI (for the time). Most importantly, it also ushered in the ability to connect to other players using modems to play together. You could either play co-op, or competitive. This was the beginning of deathmatch multiplayer, a concept that would quickly permeate the industry. Doom set the bar high, and every game that came after followed in its giant footsteps.
