Have Sci-fi games this gen been lacking?

I remember walking out the door in Halflife 2 and being greeted with a incredible world, a jaw dropping mish-mash of old lived in yellows mixed with sterile blues as a giant tumor on humanity reached into the clouds. It's tentacles firmly latched like a tick suckling at it's host.

An incredible sight, a triumph of artistic vision.

But then I played Horizon Zero Dawn lately, and thought "this is abit shit".

Is there any triumph sci-fi game of this generation or have we hit a lull?

Now that you mention it. Sequel to last gen sci-fi (Mass Effect, Deus Ex) sort of failed. Then we have the grind shooters like Destiny and upcoming Anthem, Division which are failures by default. Horizon had cool enemy design, but the rest was very standard open-world stuff. Rest of Sony's big exclusives are not sci-fi (I guess Detroit, haven't played that). Nintendo don't really do sci-fi.

Hmmm

I guess it's up to CDPR to save us once again! Cyberpunk looks like a perfect sci-fi game imo. Like a cool take on a semi-realistic world with some semi-realistic tools.

I have been impressed.

Detroit was blast and had neat scifi elements.

Mirrors Edge Catalyst had immaculate scifi town.

MEA had some epic scifi stuff to be found. Not that noobs ever got that far in the game...

Deus Ex MD was very neat scifi game as well.

HZD had excellent scifi story behind it. Not that noob OP ever get that far in it...

Elex is excellent mix of scifi and fantasy.

FFXV, another excellent mix of scifi and fantasy.

Nier Automata, excellent scifi game

Elite Dangerous, excellent scifi space adventure

NMS Next, excellent scifi survival romp.

And so on.

Maybe you should play more, and whine less?

Noobs, eh?

I love sci-fi and always felt videogames have always lacked when it comes to it. At least when you compare with other genres like fantasy. I mean, there's always been plenty of shooters but they tend to be quite shallow. Tides of Numeneria, Alien Isolation and Prey are my picks for this gen.

No Mans Sky is one of the coolest games I got to experience this gen.

I put like 50 hours into it before I got stuck. I couldn’t find the “Atlas Pass” and now I am trapped on some planet with limited fuel.

Hoping all the updates made it a bit easier.

I have been meaning to play it again but so many great games came out after.

Horizons sci find areas reminded me of the original fallout games. But you need to play a bit more of the game to reach those areas.

I did enjoy Mass Effect Andromeda, Final Fantasy XV, Halo 5, Gears of War 4, Destiny 2, and Titanfall 2 and there are also a few other games that I have yet to play but think look to be very good. I am also very hyped for Anthem. Sci-fi seems to be fairly well represented to me.

I think OP taste is lacking if he thinks Horizon was shit. LOL. I would love to read what you think is good.

Nier: Automata and Prey?

I waited until the STALKER games were in a more presentable condition before really playing them. Now, I have enough to pick from: Clear Sky, Call of Pripyat, Lost Alpha can sub for ShoC. Sci-fi doesn't necessarily have to be futuristic and the STALKER series have plenty.

Although they're not recent, I think they hold up very well.

We have Starcitizen. I don't think they are lacking.

Maybe nostalgia always wins, but nothing comes close to the original Mass Effect trilogy for me. Someone above mentioned Titanfall 2, it is an underrated sci-fi single player experience for sure. Also Cyberpunk 2077 looks like to be an once in a generational sci-fi game to me. Metro Exodus is also coming next summer. This far there aren't many games with the calibre of older games, even if they are welcome additions to the genre. The geometric detail and extra texture work is welcome, but as OP said it sometimes lacks the impactful immersion that older games simply got right.

Doom exist so i dont think so.

Love how all the cows go crazy because op dare to criticize horizon:)

Horizon was my GOTG.

Did have high hopes on star ocean, look how that turned out.

I’ve played some pretty good sci-fi games this gen probably because this gen has had some good space sims like Elite Dangerous, NMS, and SC. Even COD: Infinte Warfare has some good sci-if in it as well as Titanfall 2. I have to admit that ME:A was a disappointment even though it’s not as terrible as people say it is. I would still like to see more sci-if games. Hopefully Anthem can scratch some of that itch for me. Also Cyberpunk 2077 should be freaking amazing as far as sci-fo goes, I’m highly anticipating that game.

In terms of AAA games, this gen has definitely been weaker than last gen when it comes to sci-fi. For example, the likes of Fallout, Mass Effect and Gears of War went downhill, Vanquish never got a sequel, Metal Gear became less sci-fi with its prequels, etc. But this gen did have Nier Automata, one of the greatest sci-fi games.

Outside of AAA games, this gen has been great for sci-fi visual novels localized in English (although the best ones were originally last-gen titles that were ported and localized this gen). Steins Gate and Muv-Luv Alternative, for example, have the best sci-fi narratives ever written for an interactive medium. And there have also been some great sci-fi visual-novel-adventure games like the Zero Escape series and the Danganronpa series, for example.

New AAA IP's have been lacking this gen the most.

I liked HZD's sci-fi.

I'm guessing Destiny and Anthem would be there? Might feel questionable in their models though.

Many examples have already been mentioned.

SCI FI is alive and well, but Space level SCI FI has been lacking. Elite Dangerous was ok, but abit too vanilla for my tastes.... Star Citizen is coming along nicely.

Mass Effect took a nose dive in quality.

And I agree Horizon Zero Dawn was a pretty but underwhelming game overall.... just another looker.

I agree that this gen has been lacking in the sci-fi deparment....but Prey was really good and provides a great fix if needed.

@uninspiredcup

sci fi games are experiencing their best era is gaming ever and I can say that with confidence.

its just not happening in the console world,. or maybe it is, not sure but I do know its absolutely happening in the PC world

There have been a few decent Sci-Fi games like Prey, but nothing on the level of the first two Dead Space or original 3 Mass Effect games.

Headliners but in no way a complete list, if you want more I can provide more

Elite Dangerous

Space Engineers

Empyrion - Galactic Survival

Osiris: New Dawn

Star Citzen

Kerbal Space Program

Interstellar Rift

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcBhe4zD12s

Horizon has amazing sci-fi. The story of horizon is gonna stick with me for a long time. Destiny however, nearly single-handedly killed my love of sci-fi. I have hope for Anthem though.

Forget about all this awesome action/space opera bs....I want a new Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday style sci-fi cRPG.

I remember walking outside in Half-Life 2 thinking wow this really sucks.

Off-topic... but yall need to read/ listen to The Expanse series by James S. A. Corey

1st 3 books are amazing, and will get you to finish the rest. Great sci-fi world that is not too far-fetched or hard to imagine.... if we had the tech.

I would say in general that it’s meh. Horizon was good. Everyone has ME and Dead Space trilogy on their minds from last gen and some other shit, I’m sure.

How do you classify what's sci-fi and what's not? Obvious exceptions aside, of course.

Good sci-fi generally relates to real life in some profound or exceptionally executed manner coupled with quality story-telling to the point you're engaged and accepting the world. That isn't really Horizon or Mass Effect, both of these are as subtle as a brick and full of painfully cringey dialogue.

Take Q from Star Trek. Initially in the pilot he's a adversary. Then a trickster, Joker like. As time moves on he becomes more human like, ending up as Picards Guardian angel with an optimistic view for humanity.

Wonderful, masterpeez Sci-fi with the greatest final episode a show has ever produced.

And then we have bad sci-fi.

I think my standout sci-fi game of this gen has been Stellaris.

There have also been a bunch of really interesting indie sci-fi games, like Subsurface Circular.

But yeah, mainstream AAA titles have had pretty uninspired sci-fi settings this gen.

@uninspiredcup:

Prey was phenomenal.

Actually there are plenty of sci fi games this gen.

Its just that, deep inside we miss a quality Sci-Fi title from Bioware.

A bit maybe. Gen is definitely lacking sci-fi games I personally want to play. I've just played some Everspace (cool spaceship roguelike), Deus Ex: MD (didn't like it, and can't really stand the cringe that is Adam Jensen), DOOM, if that counts. Nier Automata looks really cool, I might get it as soon as it's cheap. It's 59.99€ ($68) on Steam right now. **** that price. Then there's a lot of indie, kickstarted, unfinished space games. I'm not OK with paying for unfinished games, so there goes most of them.

Other sci-fi games I'm currently interested in:
Deep Rock Galactic (still early access, no buy yet from me)
The Last Night (being developed)

....lol. I thought that list would be bigger.