What are games that revolutionized their genres?

The title says it all, for example I think Doom

007 GoldenEye

Counterstrike

Halo

And Cod MW1

Revolutionized the first person shooter (FPS) genre for whatever reason. But I'm curious what do you think are other games that revolutionized their genres?

Halflife. It's basically is one of the most influential games made in and outside it's genre. For example, it influenced the recent God Of War trying to not to have cut-scenes, the developer specifically cites it.

Street Fighter II and Halo immediately spring to mind. Maybe Final Fantasy and Super Mario Bros. as well.

Resident Evil also definitely belongs in there too.

@Archangel3371: Halo is a yes and Mario is a maybe? Lol.

Warcraft

Wing Commander

Doom

Alone in the Dark

Sim City

Super Mario Bros

Contra

Kings Quest

Grand Theft Auto 3

@Juub1990: When I said ‘maybe’ Super Mario Bros. it just means that I didn’t think a lot about it and if there were any other games that came out similar to it at that time. So yeah don’t try to overthink my comment, I would say that Super Mario Bros. fits in adequately as a game that helped revolutionize its respective genre.

I will add Demon's Soul, Gears of War in recent era. Given the games we put out there Gran Turismo gets in there as well.

Yeah I’d say that Gears of War and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare helped revolutionize their respective genres as well.

Dune 2

Wolfenstein 3D

Doom - LAN MP

Battlehawks 1942

Steel Panthers

Ultima

Dungeon Master - probably spawned as many clones as Doom.

@Archangel3371: Did Resident Evil do anything new or unique?

Alone in the Dark did the whole "fixed camera survival horror with multiple protagonists, tank controls, no ammo, dogs jumping through windows, and a mansion full of zombies and statue puzzles" thing 4 years earlier...

It popularized survival horror. It done what Alone In The Dark did, just better. e.g. Tighter controls, better graphics, duel campaign with characters having diffrent abilities/stats, better inventory, music score etc...

2 expanded upon all this, and fixed it's horrendous voice work. It especially expanded upon the idea of a duel campaign it was two simultaneous stories told at once than the "slight" differences in Resident Evil 1.

Funnily enough Alone In The Dark also pre-dates Resident Evil in moving away from survival-horror with 2 having more of a focus on action with human-enemies, than the slow methodical supernatural elements of the original.

Deus EX

MGS

Half-Life

Chrono Trigger

Super Mario 64

Lol @ halo.

@Planeforger: I never played Alone in the Dark but from my understanding RE just did pretty much everything better. Personally I would say that popularizing a genre is something that can be considered as ‘revolutionizing’ a genre.

Everything has been pretty much said so I'll say Mortal Kombat started the ESRB.

Edit: Tony Hawk games .

WoW - MMOs

Half-Life - FPS

Deus Ex - immersive sim

Starcraft - rts

LoL - moba

CS - military shooters

Quake - online gaming

PC ftw.

Divinity original sin 2

Doom popularize then Half life Revolutionize FPS genre.

Max Payne revolutionize TPS genre.

Thief Revolutionize stealth genre.

This. I would also add Thief, Deus Ex, Commandos and to the lesser extent Far Cry/Crysis.

E.T on the Atari was ground-breaking

Arguably the most influential and revolutionary game of the past decade.

Since it's release there probably hasn't been a single more influential game from a development standpoint since it's creation.

It revolutionized Action RPG combat (showing western devs how it should be done), atmosphere, world building and online interaction and none has been more copied or referenced for inspiration from other developers.

The sub-genre Souls like is entirely built of the back of this legendary game.

Company of Heroes 1&2

I find it difficult to enjoy traditional RTS after COH revolutionized the genre with:

• Squads
• Commander call-ins
• Resource gathering by fighting for points
• Excellent 2v2, 3v3 and 4v4 play where you work together, instead of just having more people on the map

It's worth noting as well, Halflife influenced Edward Snowdon to save us from America.

Greenwald notes in his book — No Place to Hide, set to be released this month — that Snowden told him video games had an impact on his worldview and morality. According to Greenwald, Snowden's moral compass was guided by video game stories — ideas like saving the world by subverting a greater evil, ordinary people taking it upon their shoulders to defend those who can't take action themselves and finding the means, no matter how small at first, with which to take that action.

"In Hong Kong, Snowden told me that at the heart of most video games is an ordinary individual who sees some serious injustice, right?" Greenwald said. "Like some person who's been kidnapped and you've got to rescue them, or some evil force that has obtained this weapon and you've got to deactivate it or kill them or whatever. And it's all about figuring out ways to empower yourself as an ordinary person, to take on powerful forces in a way that allows you to undermine them in pursuit of some public good. Even if it's really risky or dangerous.

"That moral narrative at the heart of video games was part of his preadolescence and formed part of his moral understanding of the world and one's obligation as an individual."

Although it doesn't specifically say so, a man who looks like Gordon Freeman working for Orwellian group, who 100% played games on Steam? Describing what specifically sounds like a certain Orwellian game sci-fi masterpiece on Steam? 2+2

This is a great video. What I find really sad is that Valve themselves did not do the interview with Danny O'Dwyer. Back in the good old days, Valve would of done this but now they don't do jack shit for their community anymore.

Danny O'Dwyer really done himself a service leaving Gamespot when he did.

Resident Evil 4 sure did this. The so-called over-the-shoulder camera, even some elementary aspects of cover-based action, were first introduced in RE4. Then it all rose to fame in then-nex-gen game, Gears of War.

Speaking of the Evil, RE2 remake which is coming up in a few weeks, will shake the industry again. Mark my words.

GTA3 has to be in there I think...

Splinter cell

@uninspiredcup: he still does an F1 podcast with Drew from GB. Big fan of them.

Besides the ones mentioned I will add also Uncharted. Everyone started trying to copy it afterwards.

Also I will say that games like Flower and Journey started the zen-gaming wave.

Good call. I think we haven't yet seen its true impact but it will definitely affect how this type of games are going to be done from now on.

I really don't see Halo as revolutionary. Maybe it was for consoles but for the game mechanics in an FPS as a whole I'm more inclined to think it devolved and over simplified the genre, especially single player. Limited guns, linear maps, long cut scenes where character control was removed, long walking sections etc. The multiplayer was again maybe for consoles but, again, not for the genre, it slowed the twitch game down when compared to the likes of Quake or Unreal and couldn't hold a candle to Counter Strike and several other HL mod's .

Don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed the Halo games, I just don't see them as ground breaking or genre defining.

Excellent list, I'd add Wing Commander to it as well but I guess the love affair with Space games died off until Star Citizen came on the scene to shake things up again.

Well the title says "revolutionized their genres" not if the revolution was good or bad lol. But I do agree with what you say.

@zappat: That's a fair point :)

Platformer: Super Mario 64

Open world: Breath of the Wild.

Real-Time strategy: Shogun Total War.

lol

@blackballs: I knew somebody would pick me up on this lol.

Resi4 did it for TPS.