Existing comment:
DOS/Windows
Action: DOOM II
DOOM II helped popularize the first-person perspective genre, in which the player sees directly through the eyes of the protagonist.
The player takes the role of a nameless space marine, tasked with defeating numerous monsters in order to help humans escape from an invaded Earth.
DOOM II was one of the first widely successful games to employ a game "engine." Principal developer John Carmack created a set of software tools that allowed his designers to craft a variety of levels with very little programming. Other developers could re-use these tools, adding their own graphics, characters, weapons, and levels to create new games.
Advances in technology allowed DOOM II to operate over a Local Area Network, enabling up to four people to play against each other remotely. This was a significant shift in the way people interacted with video games and paved the way for the online multiplayer games that are now commonplace.
Target: Diablo II
Diablo II brought an exciting world of monsters, wilderness, and dungeons to the role-playing genre. Unlike its predecessor, Diablo II was designed with online gaming in mind and many elements of the gameplay were enhanced in multiplayer mode.
The designers took advantage of visually powerful cutscenes, or in-game movies, to tell the story, in which you seek a warrior possessed by the evil spirit of Diablo, the Lord of Terror. They also introduced a new way of manipulating the action during gameplay. Instead of directly controlling the protagonist, as in most dungeon-based games, you guide the character to various destinations and conflicts by pointing the way with a gauntlet-shaped cursor.
Diablo II's detailed graphics, real-time combat, and progressive character development created a highly engaging, cinematic experience that is still popular today.
Adventure: Fallout
Fallout stands apart from other role-playing games of the late 1990s with its visual style, dark humor, and complex storyline that touches on serious political and social issues.
Set in 2161, the game takes place one hundred years after a global nuclear war has forced mankind to retreat into a few government-controlled underground vaults. The designers incorporated dramatic cutscenes, or in-game movies, to set the stage for their story, which takes place in a retro-futuristic world filled with computers that use vacuum tubes, deco-era space weapons, and period costumes.
The muted colors and dark, desolate environments create an ominous, yet realistic, world for players to explore, in which their decisions and actions can directly influence the story.
Tactics: StarCraft
StarCraft is widely considered to be the best Real Time Strategy game ever made. It takes the concept of an armchair general, overseeing a strategic battlefield, and combines it with a vast, fully-realized world of humans and aliens.
The game includes three distinct species, each of which have their own strengths, powers, and abilities. To further distinguish the species, the designers applied different visual styles to each.
The insect-like Zerg, for example, have organic weapons and buildings, while the humans, or Terrans, are familiar in appearance and have more readily identifiable assets at their disposal.
In StarCraft, players face real-world issues such as overpopulation, colonization, government suppression, and genocide, against a futuristic, science-fiction backdrop. |