Games That Made You Go... Woah

[Jive One]

Wing Commander Privateer - The first game of that type I played and I loved the open-ended nature of it. I especially loved seeing how each base/planet differed in its environment.

Myst and Zork Nemesis - Amazing atmosphere and they felt like you were exploring some sort of lost world.

Master of Orion and Civ2 - My parents bought these for me as Christmas presents on the recommendation of a Comp USA employee. I was amazed at everything you could do in the games and I read both manuals during the entire car ride to Grandma's house.

Flashback and Ecco the Dolphin - Two Genesis titles that just seemed wholly unique in their day.

 

[Cadmus]

Oh guys I completely forgot:

Soldier of Fortune!
OH MY THIS WAS SO AWESOME! And it still kind of is, I don't think there's any other game with such a detailed gore, is there?
I remember playing the demo forever cuz I was shit at games and it was so much fun. then years later I got the full version and it was glorious!
YOU KILLED MY FRIEND!
YOU KILLED MY BROTHER!
AGAGGAUFHAUDHA
I also completely fucking shat my pants when playing marine in the original (1999, not for Jaguar) AvP game. It was so scary I would literally scream at the screen and run around and couldn't get anywhere because upon seeing an alien I'd just run into a wall and couldn't hit anything out of fear and got killed. That was the scariest game I've ever played. Maybe I was too young then.

Another game that made me go WHOA was Max Payne 1 for the obvious reasons. I'd just seen Matrix and MP was a real Matrix experience for me at the time, but I couldn't get it to run on my PC so I played Blood 2 instead (because there was a lot of dirt coming off walls when you shot them just like in Max Payne) and then I got a new PC and played MP almost non-stop.

 

[DraQ]

Soldier of Fortune!
OH MY THIS WAS SO AWESOME! And it still kind of is, I don't think there's any other game with such a detailed gore, is there?

Cortex Command.


Anyway, other than damage model and accompanying visuals SoF1 was pretty mediocre.
Hiring a 100% legit merc consultant for a game where you fired underslung GL from ordinary bullet pool was laughable as well.

 

[Cadmus]

Soldier of Fortune!
OH MY THIS WAS SO AWESOME! And it still kind of is, I don't think there's any other game with such a detailed gore, is there?

Cortex Command.


Anyway, other than damage model and accompanying visuals SoF1 was pretty mediocre.
Hiring a 100% legit merc consultant for a game where you fired underslung GL from ordinary bullet pool was laughable as well.

Uh, I have a feeling that this game was released in a different time... Today the merc consultant would have carefully explained to everyone what colours the brown costumes and collimators on their guns should have. I have no idea what was the guy for in SoF but for me it was one of the games that were "just awesome and don't think too much about it" I really liked for example that there were no ragdolls but dying animations where you could finish the guy off, there were guts, brains, you could shoot off legs and arms off a guy before he even hit the ground, you could have held him suspended in the air with machine gun fire. That was so cool.

 

[dnf]

Soldier of Fortune!
OH MY THIS WAS SO AWESOME! And it still kind of is, I don't think there's any other game with such a detailed gore, is there?

Cortex Command.


Anyway, other than damage model and accompanying visuals SoF1 was pretty mediocre.
Hiring a 100% legit merc consultant for a game where you fired underslung GL from ordinary bullet pool was laughable as well.

Cortex Command is a 2d game, so leave 2d subhumans separated from glorious 3d details. What about Soldier of Fortune 3: payback
And what role John Mullins played in the game development? It probably was not his call to make the game a anti simulation.

 

[Astral Rag]

A very good friend gave me a diskette containing the shareware of Wolf3D (he had copied it from his father...), I raced home after school and was absolutely gob smacked when I entered this 3D world. This was the first first-person game I ever played. I was 11 years old and this was without a doubt the best game thing in existence. Later that week I copied purchased the other episodes.

I only stopped playing Wolfenstein when I was gob smacked again by the next id game. This was the first game I played over a network, of course Doom was now the best and most addicting thing in the universe. Not much later I discovered Ultima Underworld and System Shock...

Flying around on a Magic Carpet, delving Dungeons, blowing up entire 3D cyberpunk cities also generated a very strong woah effect.



Some other woah-inducing games of note:


Red Baron, Wings of Glory, F-22 Lightning II

Terminal Velocity (flying through and above those clouds ), Wing Commander III

Alone in the Dark, Ecstatica, Bioforge

Under a Killing Moon, Myst

Duke3D, Blood, Quake1, Quake3, Unreal

Populous, Warcraft 1, Sacrifice, Citizen Kabuto, Homeworld

Megarace, Stunts, Carmageddon, Interstate 76, Powerslide, Rollcage, GP Legends

GTA 1, 3 and 4

System Shock 2, Thief1 and 2, Deus Ex, Fallout, Lands of Lore, Gothic II

 

[undecaf]

Few I remember over some others:

B.A.T. 2 - The Koshan Conspiracy
It Came From the Desert
Cannon Fodder
Civilization (1 & 2)
Fallout (1 & 2)
Starcraft
Half Life
Theme Park
HoMM 1-3
Syndicate
Settlers
Wolfenstein 3D
Deus Ex
Dreamweb
Brutal Sports: Football


---- Oh fuck this thread, now I'm stuck watching Amiga and C64 nostalgia videos from Youtube for god knows how long...

 

[wwsd]

I first played Wolfenstein when I was 9 or so and I was honestly just like: "Woah, there's swastikas and pictures of Hitler everywhere and all the soldiers keep yelling Achtung!" Really made those history lessons come alive.

More seriously though, I only played Deus Ex for the first time last year. For some reason, it just didn't register with me when it came out, and I heard how good it was later on, but still never got around to it. Old games that you've never played before can still be pleasantly surprising.

 

[Raapys]

Diablo 1 - I'd never played any rogouelikes at that time, so it was a completely new experience to me. The gameplay, atmosphere, music and graphics just made an excellent combo. Was wowing continually for at least the first few hours.

Gothic 1 - First played the german demo. Couldn't understand much, but the detailed, well-crafted and organic game world, combined with good graphics and long view distance, made a breathtaking display. Hadn't seen anything quite like it at the time.

Homeworld - One of those few games I was actually hyped for before release and which turned out to be even more awesome than I'd hoped. Returning after the hyperdrive test and the gardens of kadesh were both 'wow' moments.

Daggerfall - Probably my first 'here's a huge, open game world, go do whatever you want' game. At least in 2.5D. Getting out of the starter dungeon to the snowy, atmospheric plains and awesome music, and then opening the world map, was definitely a big wow moment for me.

HoMM & MoO series - Perhaps not truly wow games as such, but I'm giving them a nod because of the sheer addictiveness they held, which for me remains unmatched to this day.

 

[Ninja Destroyer]

Doom - for me, playing C64 games earlier and running Doom as a first game on a new PC was the moment my fate as a gamer has been sealed. That shit was scary as hell, all those dark places, enemies shouting, impaled corpses, satanic symbols. Truly a setting for a good nightmare. I probably played 99 % percent of the mega-wads that were released, but still I'm looking or replaying some of them. It was the first multiplayer experience too, so it has got even more woah factor for me.

Syndicate - a first cyberpunk isometric sandbox-like . High-res graphics with 16 colors, Russel Shaw's music and nihilistic atmosphere. That, and uncontrolled violence that player could make. Civillians are only part of the background in the grand scheme of your mega corporation. I always wondered how the multiplayer part was working, as in, if it was balanced enough to try it more than once.

Silent Hill - I remember playing the hospital parts of the game, it was 2 a.m and I was having a cold sweat, running around without any walkthrough trying to survive and move onward. It was my first experience with asian type of horror, and in interactive form. What make me really woah, is that ending wasn't good. Later on I read about that and was really surprised how much effort was put to that. I was always a winner at the end. Guess what, you blew it up!

Gothic - I've had a crush on 3d games with tpp view (not fpp) and didn't know about the RPG elements. What can I say, after the "Welcome to the colony" and knowing I can explore the colony I was sold. This was a title from nowhere, made by some guys in Germany but I D1P and was having a blast. Earlier there was of course Morrowind, which was another time sink and was probably playing it for a couple of months due to not having an internet to spoil things and know where is the best gear.

 

[nomask7]

I sound like a broken record, but Gothic 2: Night of the Raven. It was my first Gothic game, I sucked at it but didn't realise that. I was scared shitless by half of the monsters and my strategy was to avoid all combat. Travelling became a thrilling and scary game in itself, but honestly it felt like this was how the game was meant to be played: the carefully planned and interesting environments and all the monster positions and how they behaved and how fast they ran, gave this impression. I would try to avoid their zone and I'd know when I was too close from the way they behaved, then I'd have a little bit of time to get some distance between us before they chose to attack (depending on the type of monster). If they did attack, it was still possible to lose them in most cases (unlike in, say, Oblivion), and you'd have to try again or find a different route. Amazing experience, but you may need to be a bit of a noob to play it like this.

 

[dextermorgan]

Most of what I had in mind has already been covered. I guess I'll add my very fist multiplayer session in The Terminator: SkyNET. That game was way ahead of its time.

 

[KoolNoodles]

This fucking game. Just wow. From the very start with the box art depicting exactly what you were going to be playing: awesome as fuck space battles with lancing beam lasers and capital ships getting torn to shreds.

Then when you get into the game there are multiple craft to fly and choose from, you can choose your weapons, the missions are engaging and challenging, the voice acting is great, the story moves along at a good clip and isn't cheese balls. Everything about this flight simulator exceeded expectations for me. Freespace? By the Descent people? And it's better than fucking Tie Fighter, the godfather of space sims? The game was made in less than a year, ahead of schedule. These were geniuses on crack who cranked out a masterpiece.

I was saying "woah" from start to finish, and nothing has come close to this game since.

 

[warpig]

I started playing Freespace 2 yesterday, last time I played it was in the late 90's. I forgot how awesome this game is. One thing I didn't remember from back then was the music, it's incredibly cool. I still like Tie Fighter better. I can't say that it's an objectively superior game, but the basic mechanics, the controls, how the dogfighting "feels" is more to my liking. I prefer the style, atmosphere and backstory of FS though, fuck Star Wars.

 

[Kem0sabe]

The Darkness, very well told story with some genuine good writing and characters for a videogame.

 

[NotAGolfer]

+1 for Operation Flashpoint not only because of the vulnerability of your char but also because of the solo missions where you are lost in the woods and are basically free to go anywhere you want on the island. The boy scout stuff like navigating the map plus finding the polar star was great too.
Many other whoa effects in games resulted in minor disappointments though, at least for me.
I loved the huge world of Daggerfall and still like that game. But realizing that there was nothing on the overworld map between cities, that almost all NPCs had no purpose besides giving quests and so on, that was quite a letdown.
Same for Frontier First Encounters (only Elite game I ever played) with its boundless galaxy nearly completely devoid of content.

 

[Contrite]

Street Fighter 2 (whoa, I can fireball? Each character has their own moves? The last boss can torpedo across the screen with weird energy shooting from his body? I can beat the shit out of a car?)
The Lost Vikings (whoa, I can choose which character to play at any time, whenever I want? What is this witchery?)
Ultima 7 (whoa! whoa! whoa!)
Skyrim (whoa, I can actually kick ass as a mage? I can fire diff spells from diff hands? Sword and spell combo?)

 

[Xeon]

What? I thought Mages suck in Skyrim, It was great at low levels but since the damage never changes but the higher the level the more health enemies will have, eventually playing as a mage kinda gets bad. Unless you make enchantments to nullify the cost for the spells and then spam fireball and other similar high level spells.

Anyway I played Street Fighter 2 in an arcade when I was a kid and really enjoyed it.

 

[Contrite]

What? I thought Mages suck in Skyrim, It was great at low levels but since the damage never changes but the higher the level the more health enemies will have, eventually playing as a mage kinda gets bad. Unless you make enchantments to nullify the cost for the spells and then spam fireball and other similar high level spells.

Anyway I played Street Fighter 2 in an arcade when I was a kid and really enjoyed it.

Well yeah, when facing more powerful enemies you should use more powerful spells, if you are playing a pure mage or a warrior mage (battlemage) type character. And don't forget the power of dual casting, esp. with the right talents. Another great thing was that Skyrim did away with the spell generator all previous TES games had. This might seem like a deal breaker at first to TES purists, but it is actually a good thing as it encourages mage payers to explore the world to find more powerful spells. And also each spell can now have it's own unique effect.

 

[DalekFlay]

The Darkness, very well told story with some genuine good writing and characters for a videogame.

Lack of PC port still pisses me off.

 

[Cadmus]

What? I thought Mages suck in Skyrim, It was great at low levels but since the damage never changes but the higher the level the more health enemies will have, eventually playing as a mage kinda gets bad. Unless you make enchantments to nullify the cost for the spells and then spam fireball and other similar high level spells.

Anyway I played Street Fighter 2 in an arcade when I was a kid and really enjoyed it.

Well yeah, when facing more powerful enemies you should use more powerful spells, if you are playing a pure mage or a warrior mage (battlemage) type character. And don't forget the power of dual casting, esp. with the right talents. Another great thing was that Skyrim did away with the spell generator all previous TES games had. This might seem like a deal breaker at first to TES purists, but it is actually a good thing as it encourages mage payers to explore the world to find more powerful spells. And also each spell can now have it's own unique effect.

Yeah uh, not really. Imagine there'd be unique effects AND a spell maker!??!

 

[Dreaad]

Well yeah, when facing more powerful enemies you should use more powerful spells, if you are playing a pure mage or a warrior mage (battlemage) type character. And don't forget the power of dual casting, esp. with the right talents. Another great thing was that Skyrim did away with the spell generator all previous TES games had. This might seem like a deal breaker at first to TES purists, but it is actually a good thing as it encourages mage payers to explore the world to find more powerful spells. And also each spell can now have it's own unique effect.

good try I guess.

 

[DalekFlay]

Mages suck in Skyrim. Rogues are better than ever though, so I guess that's a trade-off? I dunno.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

A bit late to the party, but I just saw the thread:

* Half Life - the intro sequence on the tram where you traverse the entire Black Mesa facility (which you will later traverse backwards) just blew my mind. I haven't seen that kind of scale prior to that.
* Operation Flashpoint - most of that game was mind-blowing for the time, but one thing especially touched me. There was a mission where the Russians attack in surprise and you are supposed to get yourself to the extraction zone on the same island. Somehow I managed to get lost all by myself, separated from everyone else, and suddenly I am in the middle of a giant island, with Russian tank and infantry patrols all around me, and I am crawling around in the grass, without a clue of how to get to the extraction point. 2 real time hours later, I've crawled past all the enemies (being shot at only once along the way), and made my way there. The atmosphere and immersion in between was just WOW.
* GTA III - first GTA game for me, and although the later ones were much better, that first sense of being free to go anywhere in a realistically sized city was mind-blowing.
* NetHack - lots of Whoa moments when you realize how everything in the game is functional, one of the funniest for me was when i got tired of fighting a troll over and over again as it kept coming back from death so I tried something ridiculous and it worked!

Spoiler

I ate the troll corpse

* Dwarf Fortress - building my first well was mind blowing: digging out tunnels beneath rainwater pools, connecting them to a reservoir underground, putting in flood gates and levers, etc.
* Arcanum - just for the record, I don't consider Arcanum to be anywhere near as good as some people here, but that moment when you meet Nasrudin on the island and he s alive, that was pretty Whoa!

 

[Luzur]

the intro to Might and Magic III

first time i heard good synthesized speech.