Most influential games

carvuliero

I am sure most of people that work or want to work in the game industry at some point had played a game that made such huge impression to make them want to be part of game industry How a game became great and how its able to leave long last effect ? Is it game design, visuals, difficulties, learning curve ,mechanics, replayability, uniqueness or there is secret ingredient or there need to be just the right blend ?

I think this could be repository for great game to try during holiday season

Here are mine :

Disciple 2 [Turn based strategy] unique upgrade/evolve mechanic ,difficulty very high ,game play unfair ,AI relentless ,character and creature designs epic

Diablo 2 [RPG] game play addictive and very replayable, story very good, cinematic epic ! almost random generated dungeons , huge variety of everything

Warcraft 3 [RTS] Its the game that keep giving after 20 years its still fresh exiting and entertaining , players are still inventing new strategies pro scene is healthy growing and profitable, right now there are very good, pros and 'we cant beat this guy' players which put learning curve at sky high  , story very good , unique balance between hero and units with more weight on the hero ,custom maps

Ori both games [metroidvania] Very sooth and responsive controls , beautiful graphics , cool cat creatures[only in second game], very satisfying game play , well balanced learning curve

Sword of the starts : the pit [Turn based rpg] difficulty sky high , huge variety of everything heroes items weapons traps enemies , learning curve pretty steep , game play unfair

Firewatch [walking simulator?] story engaging ,setting unique ,toy turtle ,no violence , very cool play with devs mode

Carmageddon 2 [blend] Unique in any possible way , dark humor , lots of variety , collectable everywhere ,level design epic

Unknown [shoot em up ] Old console game on panasonic ? with destructible environment , later red faction franchise had similar mechanics very unique and underused

Joopson

Love this question; and love gushing about my favorites:

• Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (and others, esp Aria of Sorrow)- I've beaten this game so many times. I love how full of secrets it is. I love the weird uses of 3D. Visually speaking, I think a lot of my personal aesthetic actually comes from Castlevania.

• Pokemon Red: I always say to my wife, Pokemon red doesn't feel like it had to be made by humans. And by that I mean, because it's so simple, and made of tiles, etc, it always felt a little wild and dangerous to me. Like it could form itself into secret formations of its own will. This sounds wacky, because it's a wacky idea! But my early days being vaguely unsettled by Lavender Town, or using a gameshark to walk through walls and find little secrets that way, gave me a feeling that the world I was playing in was largely unknowable. Not to mention if you unplugged the cartridge while playing. I also thought the "ledges" you jump down were really thick ropes, and for some reason that really creeped me out. I think this game has come to represent what I want out of many games. A feeling of a wide unknowable world; seen only in glimpses.

• Doom 3 - this game is what made me aware of games as something created. I remember loading up some models in milkshape3D even, to see how they worked! Something about the art in this game just hits a sweet spot for me. I never beat it, but I played the intro levels a lot, and just looked at things.

• Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - I was old enough to appreciate how beautiful this game was, and also realize people made it. And this was a sweet spot for me as well. I was obsessed with Oblivion, and the idea of modding it, of building worlds, of lore that most players will never bother to read or understand. Morrowind did this for me later as well, but not to the same extent.

At the risk of just being wordy, I'll list some others without elaborating:

• Dear Esther - Weepingly beautiful
• Dishonored - Some of the best gameplay and world building I've seen
• Amnesia - innovative
• Skyrim
• Elden Ring
• Sekiro - creepy mythic Japan setting; can't go wrong. Or rather, they didn't go wrong.
• Metroid Fusion - So fun, great concept, great graphics.
• Mirrors Edge - Those bold colors, and bounced lighting! Love the visuals.
• Silent Hill / Resident Evil (though I never played these, I saw them a lot)
• Sweetest Monster (weird inclusion; out of my normal zone. But wow. Uncomfortable. Visual Novels are an interesting medium because they imply volition and complicity even when your fate is sealed; like ancient concepts of fate, in fact! Oedipus, et al.)
• Little Nightmares

Maybe I'll add more as I think of them, because I'm sure I'm forgetting some very important ones.

thomasp

Personally I hardly touch anything beside car racing 'sims' these days - but apart from those the last game that I have particularly fond memories of is playing Inside with my brother over an evening or two during the X-mas holidays.

Very atmospheric, fluid and intuitive controls, very well presented and in terms of length and difficulty just right for us, making us work the problem like in our teenage years instead of peeking around the 'net for hints or getting bored during grinding sessions. Very tight little experience and that end sequence was such a mindf*ck, too, quite awesome. Can't wait to see what that studio comes out with next, they seem to have all the right ideas.

The game that made me dabble in lowpoly art and fire up a game's editor first was the original Counter Strike (from the Half-Life modding days) with a helping of Unreal Tournament. I became aware of this as a possible career based on mainly those two.

iam717

C&C, (Tanks games)

StarCraft I,II (II, the upgraded gfx, still have to play zerg & toss, xforming tanks)

Vandal hearts 1 (PSX is neat)

Xenogears for a 1st play-through was fun, FFVII haven't tried upgraded version

Quake III Arena (but, playing with bots is a bit meh, i hear it is still active.)

WildStar (was amazing, now idk, tbh if i could've "downloaded" whatever i needed to get that working for today's time(offline), i would be probably playing it everyday if i could, it was that interesting to me, hit all my spots, probably not so amazing alone though but housing was fun I'd remove the limit there though.)

Nothing new really stands out, some art-styles are great but the rest doesn't have a long lasting effect for me, i watch plenty of other people playing things and nothing really stands out as "memorable" or worthy to note (for me), i think after these it became about transactions so there went the fun (...i get it products...)

Guess the list above is kind of "bland", to some and generally the same game re-meshed/dressed.

This card game was unique and i like the game play switching between "styles", Inscryption, didn't play it myself but was alright for watching, the midpoint before & somewhat after ending got weird for me, the IRL story was eh, probably could've been better, might be good for a movie if they went that route.

NaritaBoy The link to the full game play of this game was pretty interesting nice style, unique, not amazing but for what it is worth it does its self justice if you never seen or heard about it.

Edit: https://store.steampowered.com/app/368230/Kingdom_Classic/ Not to promote it but watching gameplay on this game was neat. Similar games like this and turmoil were alright for a quick game if anyone wants quick games. I tried to provide all duration of game styles, quick medium and long.