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[lazygecko]

When I hear "ahead of its time" I like to think that it only qualifies titles that failed to be appreciated in their time because they contained groundbreaking features that were unfortunately limited in execution either thanks to its contemporary technical limitations, plain development hell holding back the polish needed, or a mixture of both.

I kind of like to think of Sim Copter as the first modern 3D open world sandbox game (that isn't an RPG). That game came out in 1996, before even the first top-down GTA was out, and it featured fully fleshed out cities populated with traffic and NPCs which you could explore and interact with, and you could exit your helicopter to traverse on foot. There had been other kinds of more primitive open 3D games before that may have featured a few stray buildings and enemy vehicles and the likes, but nothing that really delivered a "full package" like this.

Hell, it even featured selectable faux radio stations much like you'd expect from any GTA-style game. The game received a rather lukewarm reception on release, mainly due to its high jankiness from being rushed out by Maxis. But at the time, the sheer novelty of the game concept alone was enough for me and others to be really fascinated by it and just enjoy its freeform open ended gameplay. Had to wait for GTA3 in 2001 to experience something of the same type of scope again.

So...what'd they give it?

The full review is even better in its absurdity. I think they gave it a 4/10, and then told people to wait for Aliens Colonial Marines instead. No, I'm not making that up.

 

[Grim Patron]

Quantum Break.

 

[chekhonte]

The Guardian Legend. One of the first genre mashers. Zelda like overworld and puzzles, shmup dungeons, exp system, and upgradable main weapon and subweapon.

It needs a remake. Ubi owns the rights but it will probably never happen.

 

[hollomat]

FFXII. Really excited for the remaster next month.

 

[jetjevons]

Terminator: Skynet. 3D graphics, indoor and outdoor exploration, vehicles, etc.

 

[∀ Narayan]

Crysis

 

[Mr_Antimatter]

Everquest Online Adventures: For one thing really: It was nearly completely zoneless. You coul run from one side of the landmass to the other and never hit a loading screen. Only time it loaded was when teleporting from a coachman, or entering one of the expansion zones or planes.

Otherwise? It was fairly smooth. Granted, the game dropped the ball in an amazing number of ways.

Smugglers run: An mission based open world racing/adventure game, in massive (well, for the day) maps. Not bad for a ps2 launch era game.

Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver: Outside the initial load, the game had no load screens that i remember. Every loading zone was hidden behind long in game animations, so to the player, it was transparent. Quite amazing to do that on the ps1, with two megs of ram and a 2x cd-rom drive.

 

[Poor GRIMES]

Final Fantasy XII.

And, of course

Squaresoft somehow managed to figure out how to turn a work of art into a video game form.

 

[BstnRich]

Shame GTA3 gets all the glory for what this game established first.

At least I can breathe knowing 2 posters know all about that.

3.

There really hasn't been a game quite like this ever. Not to say it's perfect, but it's tone, pacing, style and purpose is very unique.

 

[Foxxsoxx]

Online wise, MGO2 had a ton going for it.

Full customization.
Text chat on console.
full weapon customization
built in organized tournament/ladder system
rewards based of tournaments and survival
clan system with ingame clan avatar creator
deep mechanics and game modes

I could go on.

Unfortunately the netcode was the one thing that was awful and never was fixed.

Still for 2008 that game has systems that most games today don't even have.

 

[higemaru]

How many times?



Also today i saw some Alone in the dark inferno trailers and i would say that in many aspects it was(and maybe it still is) ahead of its time(and a very underrated game )
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvlqv-aq_tY

oh my god

 

[george_us]

Metroid Prime. Chrono Trigger. Resident Evil 4.

 

[AKingNamedPaul]

Kingdom Hearts II : Final Mix

I'm only at the lion king world, but so far the game feels so very ps2 era. The worlds are so damn tiny and limited and the game play is mashy and easy. This from someone who loved KH1 and chain of memories, but unless things open up way later, the game seems to fit it's time to me.

 

[almostjuliuscaesar]

kill.switch

black

went on to be the backbone of two still huge franchises

 

[jetjevons]

kill.switch

black

went on to be the backbone of two still huge franchises

What did Black go on to become?

 

[linkboy]

Metroid and Metroid 2.

While the games are good, the NES and the Gameboy just weren't capable of pulling off what the developers envisioned. Everything was there conceptually, there just wasn't enough power in the systems to pull it off.

The Super Nintendo was the system that allowed Nintendo finally pull everything together and Super Metroid is one of the greatest video games of all time.

 

[Krappadizzle]

Also a nominee for most rockin' ass cover art.

 

[Radec]

Dino Crisis

 

[SirNinja]

Metal Gear Solid 2. The prediction of such things as "post-truth" and its power in the mass manipulation of society were largely scoffed at back then, but ring terrifyingly true today.

Nothing is ever ahead of its time

At best, this is a bad attempt at making a mediocre Demetri Martin joke. I'm going to just assume that's what this was.

 

[jettpack]

System shock 2. It was was so god damn ambitious for the time

Metroid and Metroid 2.

While the games are good, the NES and the Gameboy just weren't capable of pulling off what the developers envisioned. Everything was there conceptually, there just wasn't enough power in the systems to pull it off.

The Super Nintendo was the system that allowed Nintendo finally pull everything together and Super Metroid is one of the greatest video games of all time.

This also. And Zelda 1. They sent back to the OG Zelda well with breath of the wild and it blew people's minds. That original game. 💪

 

[Coda]

Lucky & Wild

So many fun times going to arcade and playing this game co-op with a friend or sometimes with my Dad when I was younger. For game released in 1992, the graphics, gameplay and humor was top notch.

 

[Jangowuzhere]

King's Field games.

People LOVE From Software's Souls games, but they were basically doing these types of games before years ago. They were much much slower, but that type of quiet atmosphere, minimal storytelling, and exploring a dark interconnected world has been done in Kings Field.

 

[FinKL]

Savage: The Battle for Newerth. Seamless RTSFPSTPS gameplay, Well balanced, 128 people playing on the same server. All of that in 2003, and still the game hasn't been topped, XR version and the remake are free but nobody plays them, guess people love their crates/hats/whatever from other games instead of great gameplay and actual team based coordination.

I wanted so bad to get my computer class to play this. Warcraft 3 was popular at the time and so was CS and this game featured both of those genres!

King's Field games.

People LOVE From Software's Souls games, but they were basically doing these types of games before years ago. They were much much slower, but that type of quiet atmosphere, minimal storytelling, and exploring a dark interconnected world has been done in Kings Field.

Omg this was amazing too, the best part was no internet so sometimes we would get stuck for days on stuff

 

[120v]

Elite.

was never a particular fan, but i don't know how more 'ahead of your time' you can get than Elite

 

[JusDoIt]

Metroid and Metroid 2.

While the games are good, the NES and the Gameboy just weren't capable of pulling off what the developers envisioned. Everything was there conceptually, there just wasn't enough power in the systems to pull it off.

The Super Nintendo was the system that allowed Nintendo finally pull everything together and Super Metroid is one of the greatest video games of all time.

Don't agree. Not about NES Metroid at least. There is nothing fundamentally "Metroid" missing from NES Metroid. It's as free roaming and non-linear and rewarding of creativity as you would expect. The controls hold up. Not as well as Mega Man or Contra, but still very responsive. And while a screenshot of the game won't impress nobody in 2017, seeing the game in motion and hearing that moody music still makes the game feel as foreboding and isolating as any other in the series.

It's as successful as a thesis statement for the series as Zelda 1 or SMB 1.

 

[shawnbuddy]

Batman and Robin on PlayStation One. Tries to do an ambitious open-world Batman game, smacks hard into the PSone's technical limitations and becomes a hard to play mess. I also agree with Body Harvest, the prototype GTA 3 ideas are there, but the technology hasn't caught up yet.

 

[habithipster]

The Last Ninja (C-64)
Lost Dutchman Mine (Amiga)

 

[forknknife]

How many times?



Also today i saw some Alone in the dark inferno trailers and i would say that in many aspects it was(and maybe it still is) ahead of its time(and a very underrated game )
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvlqv-aq_tY

Holy shit! First time I hear of this game.

 

[GreySquirrel]

Very tempted to fire this up later. Didn't manage to finish it as a kid, I remember it being more difficult than most games. Have vague memories of shooting at an alien boss in a world war 2 fighter plane

 

[Kinyou]

"Another World" and it's cinematic gameplay

Still amazes me that you get to actually play this sequence.

Also today i saw some Alone in the dark inferno trailers and i would say that in many aspects it was(and maybe it still is) ahead of its time(and a very underrated game )
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvlqv-aq_tY

I had forgotten about all the physics stuff and realistic fire. Definitely feels like something a modern game would try as well.

 

[Zeneric]

Graphically, Crysis.

 

[Myths]

First page you have failed me, Chrono Trigger.

 

[TheRedSnifit]

I would argue that 'pre-Shock', shooters defined a narrow category of player experience more or less unchanged since the days of Wolfenstein 3D. It wasn't until the genre was 'post-Shock' that richer titles - in terms of game mechanics, story design and emergent gameplay - started to appear (notably Half Life and Deus Ex).

In terms of shooter mechanics, System Shock was the first FPS to really attempt to create physical immersion beyond just the camera POV. It introduced a full range of movements (most of which we take for granted now) and avatar hit location to give impact to damage effects. The weapons system, in addition to giving unprecendented levels of customization, also offered greater control modality than had been seen previously. System Shock wove in enough elements borrowed from adventure/RPG to elevate its design beyond the basic shooter tropes. It offered a robust system for the player to upgrade his weapons, equipment and skills; and it integrated a well-realized 'VR' hacking game that gave authenticity to its cyberpunk theme. The fact that so many of these features are now virtually de rigor in modern sci-fi shooters is a testament to the influence exerted by this one game.

.

 

[habithipster]

"Another World" and it's cinematic gameplay

Still amazes me that you get to actually play this sequence.

Absolutely loved this game.

 

[Fuchsdh]

Halo 1, 2, and 3 all still stand out positively for what they brought years before competitors.

Halo 1 for finally proving console FPS viable, and standardizing the control scheme we now take for granted.

Halo 2 for pioneering what we now take for granted with console matchmaking—groups, clans, friends and playlists.

And as people have said, Halo 3. Especially these days where we often see features pared down over time rather than added, and in the days before simple game streaming and capture, saved films and the file share were pretty revolutionary. Like with what Halo 2 pioneered for matchmaking, a lot of Halo 3's features are now integrated into Sony and MS's consoles rather than being game-specific.

 

[bumpkin]

My nomination...

For its time, this game was a technological marvel. It was one of the original PlayStation's first fully 3D platform games where all of the levels were accessible from a main hub, akin to Super Mario 64. The thing is, the PSOne had half the power of the 64 (if you go by bits), and yet the technical wizards at Crystal Dynamics managed to squeeze out every last bit of power and produced one of the PSOne's most fun and spirited games. It gave way to a sequel, Deep Cover Gecko, but that was nowhere near as good IMHO.

The game struggled in so many ways. It had a lot of loading screens, the frame rate was all over the place in open areas or when there was a lot happening on-screen, and its visuals were very primitive by today's standards. And yet, it was fun. It was funny. And to this day, remains one of my favorite PSOne classics.

It's a shame we'll never see an HD remaster, because I would buy it in a heartbeat!

 

[Worldshaker]

Phantasy Star Online
Panzer Dragoon Saga
Shenmue
Super Metroid
Chrono Trigger

 

[Papo Swing]

Vagrant Story

 

[Akronis]

Trespasser.

 

[Joe Condor]

System Shock

 

[MrCinos]

Herzog Zwei:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EO53h7nWEU

 

[AstroNut325]

Metal.Gear.Solid

Wowza

This is my answer. Even above MGS2.

The plot, characters, gameplay, voice acting, and the overall narrative were all flawless and I've yet to experience such ground breaking stuff since.

I played MGS1 after the PS2 came out!

 

[Nezacant]

Legit was there a game that did Recording gamplay as well as Halo 3 prior to Halo 3."

iirc, Counter-Strike (1.6?) had the ability to record gameplay and that was years before Halo 3. First to do it on a console though I think. They did amazing things back then.

To contribute to this thread, Half-Life 1 and it's multiplayer counterparts (TFC, Counter Strike, etc) was way ahead of it's time as was Quake and its mods before it.

 

[big fake]

Death Stranding.

 

[Linkura]

Two games I literally thought/said this while playing them:
Phantasy Star I
Sweet Home

 

[Stoze]

Halo 1, 2, and 3 all still stand out positively for what they brought years before competitors.

Halo 1 for finally proving console FPS viable, and standardizing the control scheme we now take for granted.

Halo 2 for pioneering what we now take for granted with console matchmaking—groups, clans, friends and playlists.

And as people have said, Halo 3. Especially these days where we often see features pared down over time rather than added, and in the days before simple game streaming and capture, saved films and the file share were pretty revolutionary. Like with what Halo 2 pioneered for matchmaking, a lot of Halo 3's features are now integrated into Sony and MS's consoles rather than being game-specific.

Yep, Bungie did some groundbreaking stuff in the console space in just 6 years (+ Halo 1's development time).

 

[Tricky I Shadow]

Shenmue

/thread

Yep.

My answer is Shenmue and it's not even remotely close. The only reason someone wouldn't mention Shenmue is because they more than likely haven't played it.

 

[Bakercat]

Metal Gear Solid 2's story is literally before it's time. It deals with stuff that didn't happen in the real world until many years after the game's release. It's story is much more relevant in 2017 than it was in the early 2000's.

 

[Iceternal]

Well... BOTW invented open world games....

Did I do that right ?

 

[Finale Fireworker]

My #1 is James Bond: Everything or Nothing. This game came out in 2003 and is a magnificently underrated game.

This was before Resident Evil 4 renewed interest in third person shooters and the genre was considered untenable. At the time, James Bond games were very successful first person shooters. The last third person James Bond game was the terrible and unwieldy Tomorrow Never Dies on the PlayStation that tried to supplement its clumsy gameplay and level designs with FMV clips from the movie. At the time, returning to a highly cinematic third person game was extremely counter-pattern.

But before Resident Evil 4 and long before Uncharted, there was EoN.

The game also pushed the envelope of what we now know of as a cover shooter. This style of TPS didnt become common and popular until Gears of War, but that's exactly how EoN plays. You take your cover, you pick your targets, and you strategically eliminate your opponents.

The game features a lock-on mechanic that was extremely unique. While locked on, you could fine-tune your shot with the second stick to shoot the enemy exactly where you wanted. Want to get that headshot? Want to make them drop their gun? Just pinpoint your shot and hit them right where you want to.

But that's just the gunplay, which is complimented perfectly by an extremely innovative melee system. One button punches with Bond's left hand and one button punches with his right. Pressing them in sequences strings them into combos, and pressing them at the same time initiates a grab. These also work contextually, causing take downs and throws based on where Bond is standing.

At any time, you can also crouch to enter a stealth position. You can hide behind cover, you can sneak up to enemies, and you can silently take out enemies without others noticing.

This dynamic between lethal and stealth is now so common its normally expected. But being able to assess every encounter and situation in EoN and use the right tactics and have both systems be so well implemented was tremendous in 2003.

The game is full of major, Uncharted-like setpieces. But it also has really cool hidden opportunities called "Bond Moments." Levels are all open and sandboxy with numerous paths through the map. Shooting the right explosive barrel at the right time or driving off the right hidden jump will trigger a short and satisfying cinematic that makes you feel awesome.

The game also casts a lot of a actual Bond actors into their roles. They lend their likeness and voice work to great effect. John Cleese is Q, Pierce Brosnan is Bond, Judi Dench is M, Heidi Klum is a lead baddy, Willem Dafoe is the main villain, the game is uncharacteristically star studded for a video game of this era. As we are seeing more and more actors mocapped into their roles in video games and giving a unique performance, this kind of depiction was extremely ambitious for the time period.

There is also an entirely separate and standalone Coop campaign. There are also MGS style VR missions. There are also special challenges and awards in every level.

But there's so much other stuff I just can't believe. Something even fans of the game overlook is the level-streaming. One level features an extremely high-speed motorcycle chase on a highway. And, I mean, it's really fast. I've never felt such an adrenaline pumping sense of speed in a game, let alone for a game this old. The base speed of the motorcycle is pretty fast, but when you hold down the gas and don't fire any weapons for a few seconds, the speed increases even more.

Here's a video of the level, the second speed tier kicks in for the first time just after the minute mark: https://youtu.be/p8wOHUzHFbg

The player isn't great, but it's good enough. All the driving uses the engine for Need for Speed.

And all this time, the game never stutters or hiccups or needs to load. This was crazy for me as a teenager. You just ZOOM and don't stop.

I love this game, but it's very hard to find and play. Every now and then you see a thread where people bring up hidden gems and overlooked games that supposedly don't get the love and recognition they deserve. But EoN is my personal criminally underrated masterpiece. And in a thread full of games ahead of their time, the fact not one person has mentioned EoN demonstrates how forgotten this game is.

And that sucks. Because it's too good to get lost to time.