10 Video Games That REVOLUTIONIZED Genres

some games over the course of many years have come out and are so special or nail a certain thing just right that it changes the rest of the games in that genre forever here are some games that really shook up existing genres we got 10 trips down memory lane so let's get started off with number 10 let's talk halflife maybe specifically halflife 2 this is one that certainly revolutionized the genre but it's hard to narrow it down to one specific key way halflife 2 did a lot of things it was a firstperson shooter with a really strong compelling and unique story something that we hadn't seen told in any other games from the enemy types the characters the way those characters Express their emotions the aliens everything in it was special and the fact that the game just had a very unique very Advanced physics system the game knew that it had this technology behind it so it would give you scenarios and puzzles where you would need to use physics and take advantage of the game systems in in order to progress that's something that other games played around with before halflife 2 of course but halflife 2 with all its Tech behind it and the way it did it really popularized it and pushed those Concepts to the next level just like the original halflife came out and was like wow holy [ __ ] look at this crazy cool firstperson shooter with an interesting and intriguing mysterious Story halflife 2 did that on a grander scale with better shootouts more physics and of course the iconic City 17 it definitely revolutionized the firstperson single player Adventure genre which isn't really as much of a thing anymore but at the time I think a lot of other game makers were looking at this game going wow how can we even top that and to be totally Frank in a lot of ways halflife 2 hasn't been topped to this day I mean maybe halflife Alex in some ways but halflife 2 was just different you really had to be there granted it also revolutionized like a whole sub industry of mods and completely different Games built out of the halflife 2 engine and source and everything halflife 2's Roots Run Deep in gaming and you still see those roots to this day next over at number nine we have Arma yes believe it or not the military simulator was incredibly unique for the time because it just took itself so seriously everything was detailed everything was thought out there were military simulators before Arma but after Arma other ones really had to step their game up in terms of realism passion everything really and then Arma also served as a solid base a solid foundation uh for things in the future it's because of Arma that we kind of have so many things like dayy pubg Battlegrounds it just feels like it all originated from ARA's systems I mean Daisy directly was a mod of Arma and from there budding developers would go on to tweak that and make their own experiments and from those modders tinkering and messing around with games like this and similar games we got the Battle Royale genre I know it's kind of like a big web a big like Pepe syvia type of connection to make but it's definitely there Arma doesn't really get enough credit to this day for how it has shaped gaming and how it has changed some things up but it really did it deserves a big amount of props next over at number eight we have Dark Souls Dark Souls was incredibly influential towards RPGs action RPGs you see it to this day I mean we're mentioning Dark Souls specifically because Demon Souls of course released first it was really like the first attempt at that now tried andrue from soft soulslike style thing but it was really relegated to just the PS3 and it was dark souls that really kicked that concept into the mainstream and once Dark Souls released it was really Off to the Races with Souls inspired games Souls like style RPGs and it's not just the fact that it's a hard challenging game no there's more to it it's how you build out your character how those stats work really how the levels flow and of course the addictive Loop of going out on a run trying to get as far as you can farming those souls to hopefully get back to your Camp to level up and not die and lose them all granted that formula has different levels of complications depending on the game you're playing but other developers clearly loved from software games and have taken that concept and ran with it we've seen so many games either completely try to ape a souls-like game and just make a similar type of thing or cherry-pick little elements here and there and ultimately I think for the most part gaming is better for it I it's easy to argue that not every developer or Studio should make a soulslike game we don't need every game to be a soulslike game I'm sure some people are getting tired of the sub genre at this point but Dark Souls is a big deal and from software games in particular are still making huge waves to this day next over at number seven we have Doom the original Doom from 1993 Doom was an absolutely massive deal it was huge for the gaming world but also for the PC gaming Community now it's worth pointing out that the original firstperson shooter in a three-dimensional environment was pioneered by wolf 3D or Wolfenstein 3D in 1992 but it was Doom in 1993 that really popularized the concept Doom was a Smash Hit specifically because it was so smooth and fun to play and nobody had really seen anything like it up until that point it was slightly creepy it was kind of awesome and badass it was gritty it was gory and it was addictive as hell it also grew through people sharing pirated copies of the game people modding and making their own things out of it and it had long legs for a very long time without Doom I don't think we would really have firstperson Shooters like we do today because while you can argue that wolf 3D was the grandfather of it all doom was really like the shotgun the badass bloody guy kicking the door down and revolutionizing ing the whole thing next over at number six speaking of revolutions we got to talk about kill switch or kill. switch like that's how it's written this was a 2003 game that nobody gives enough love but essentially it really blew out the modern Third Person cover shooter genre sub genre whatever you want to call it there had been plenty of third person shooters up until this point and plenty of third person shooters that you could take cover up against the wall maybe even pop out and fire your gun done but the way kill switch handled it essentially paved the way for how third person shooters like I don't know Gears of War Uncharted how those control today kill switch had you running and gunning in third person shooting action but taking cover up against the wall and being able to Blind fire from Corners another thing that I'm pretty sure we had seen at that point in some way or another but the way kill switch handled the whole control scheme the whole freedom of being on a wall and firing anywhere you want including in front of you blind fire or popping out and just work worked smoothly they figured it out they cracked the code up until this point all of those things I mentioned were clunky and often awkward but kill switch really integrated it into the gameplay Loop just right now while the game wasn't like a mega hit or anything like that it didn't really have compelling story or characters or anything like you're kind of just like shooter guy if you play a lot of games and if you played a lot of games back then you know that this thing really kicked off what we'd see a lot more to this day a lot of the people that actually worked on the cover systems behind the scenes would go on to work at different bigger AAA Studios and that's where we're at now but anytime I play a third person shooter and I put my back up against the wall and I blind fire or jump to another spot and cover I always thank kill switch for its service next over at number five we have the thief games the original Thief games really were pretty much the Pinnacle of Stealth at the time just simulation style stealth games you had thief the Dark Project in 1998 and Thief The Metal age in 2000 and around at that point for many years afterwards like things never really moved forward in the stealth genre you can argue that splinter cell and really Chaos Theory expanded upon that in their own ways but there wasn't really anything like Thief again while the original metal gear for the MSX in 1987 really kind of coined the whole stealth concept essentially you trying to avoid combat I think it was the thief games that made some people stealth gain addicts and really proved that it could be a genre or sub genre all its own granted like I said there weren't a lot of games to do it much better than 1998 and 2000's games in the series but they are significant for a reason these games are revolutions in their own way you're going down here's one next over at number four we have Metal Gear Solid in 1998 now I am completely biased cards on the table if you guys have been watching game ranks for a while now you know Jake is just a big old metal gear solid Fanboy just a big sweaty But Metal Gear Solid was a revolution for the time like I said props to metal gear in 1987 for kind of bringing stealth to the Forefront but it was Metal Gear Solid in 1998 that really pushed forward how video game stories are told and presented in a cinematic way there were games before Metal Gear Solid with cutscenes there were third person action adventure games with stories but it was the way Metal Gear Solid portrayed it all clearly heavily inspired by movies but weaving its own weird complicated narrative through over-the-top cinematic choreographed stylish cutscenes great dialogue tense sequences in codex maybe not the stories themselves there were plenty of other games in the 9s that had Kick-Ass stories some people will argue better than Metal Gear solids but really just the way these stories were presented Metal Gear Solid did not invent the cutscene but it made it more awesome next over at number three we have Halo Halo and then Halo 2 and the multiplayer really kicking it off revolutionized firsters shooting specifically on consoles because at that point Bungie had really figured it out they cracked the code there were plenty of other awesome first-person shooters on consoles I played them all I loved them I'm still like a Red Faction and console Tac die hard but it was really Hal that figured out the control scheme and kind of changed the way developers would think about control schemes for consoles they figured it out it was fun and accessible to play easy to pick up tough to master with tons of nuance great precision and the two weapons system was incredibly unique and influential so there was that and then twofold the fact that multiplayer was a big thing with these games and then by the time Halo 2 came out it was massive and with the rise of Xbox Live Halo of course didn't invent any type of first person shooter multiplayer anything I'm looking at quake and all that but for mainstream console popularity they did a really good job pushing things forward next over at number two of course we have Grand Theft Auto 3 released in 2001 this pushed open world's sandbox style driving games to the next level because Rockstar gave us an entirely explorable City this fictional Liberty City let you drive any car you want go anywhere you want at any point I mean besides the bridges that were closed but you get the point games had tackled some of these elements separately and and and great in their own ways but it was really Grand Theft Auto that packaged it all together and of course blasted it into the stratosphere with mainstream popularity influencing so many games after it and I'm not just talking like R Theft Auto clones or games that were trying to ape that exact formula but just the open world genre itself to this day people want their games bigger wide open with huge explorable worlds and I think a large part of that was everybody's exposure to this to Grand Theft Auto 3 it was also a revolution in its own way for just being edgy and being in the media for being too controversial too violent for kids it wasn't the first game to do that I mean we're looking at Mortal Kombat but it it was another one to really push that whole thing forward Grand Theft Auto at this point is of course like one of the biggest selling properties ever it is an absolute monolith a mega hit but from those specific choices th from The Humble early days they laid the foundation for games for years to come we're still talking about Grand Theft Auto and its significance to this day now down to number one Super Mario 64 hello this was an absolute Revolution for Platformers for really pushing them from 2D to 3D did Mario 64 invent the 3D platformer no but maybe more how it flows how it goes what you're doing it really nailed it because we had alpha waves in the early 90s and then we had jumping flash on Playstation in 1995 those were technically 3D Platformers but it was Mario 64 that really cracked the code figured it out and made it so much more fun and popularized it after Mario 64 3D Platformers were a heavyweight genre for a long time I mean that year was solid Mario 64 released and soon after it was Crash Bandicoot and things just kept going from there but Mario 64 really managed to nail that fun Factor really figure out that something that thing that's hard to identify and how they translated Mario gameplay from 2D to 3D they're absolute badasses for doing it and although 3D Platformers aren't quite as popular as they used to be we still love them they have a big place in our [Applause] heart but those are 10 games that revolutionized genres some stuff we wanted to talk about today of course it's worth mentioning that there are so many other games that have revolutionized a genre a game mechanic created their own genre so let us know in the comments any games you want to talk about we couldn't fit them all in this list we have to do a part two so we'd love to know your choices for real now let us know what you think but if you like this video and you like us just talking games every day with you guys clicking the like button is all you got to do it helps us out and if you're new consider subscribing maybe hitting that notification Bell because we put out new videos every single day but either way as always thanks for watching and we'll see you guys next time

Channel: gameranx

Views: 281,454

Keywords: game innovations, gaming innovations, game genres, gaming, best games, innovated game mechanics, video game innovations, best video games, top 10 gaming, important video games, evolution of games, innovative video games, gaming top 10, videogame innovations, most groundbreaking video games, video games that reinvented gaming, games that revolutionized genres, video games that revolutionized genres, ps4, ps5, pc, xbox, nintendo switch, gameranx, jake baldino

Id: H9ZQKrESo7w

Length: 14min 51sec (891 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 18 2023