Summary
The Xbox consoles have been the home of more than a few highly influential games, but while being able to inspire other developers is one thing, some titles have even managed to change the gaming landscape forever. Needless to say, for a game to have such amagnificent impact, the developers behind it need to be ambitious, introducing and tweaking with core gaming norms to create an experience that feels entirely new, fun, and engaging.
Sometimes, it only takes a single game to change how both players and developers view gaming as a whole, and there’s been a fair share of Xbox titles that have managed to accomplish this over the years. This isn’t just referring to the original Xbox either, but also the 360, which many agree is one of the most important consoles of all time. With that being said, let’s take a deeper look at the Xbox games that changed everything to understand how exactly they had such a big impact on the industry as a whole.
Though theFPS genrehas become one of the most popular in the last few years within gaming, the game that arguably ushered it into the mainstream, especially on consoles, wasHalo: Combat Evolved. It is certainly a fitting title given the fact that Bungie strived to makeHaloa game that could completely reinvent the wheel. Sure, there had been games before it, likeDoom, which also took a first-person view, but in that game, players could only navigate through very tight corridors.Halo, meanwhile, gave players large open environments which they would be able to use to their advantage during a battle, such as by hopping into vehicles to get the flank onCovenant enemies, or hiding behind makeshift debris to avoid incoming damage.
This was especially impressive for a console, considering that beforeHalo’srelease, many assumed that only a mouse and keyboard would be accurate enough to make FPS games responsive and enjoyable. In an act of defiance, though, Bungie proved everyone wrong, and considering how many games that came after it were labeled asHaloclones, it’s easy to see howCombat Evolvedended up playing a big part in creating the modern-day FPS genre.
Throughout theearly 2000s, it was clear that many developers were struggling to nail down third-person shooter games. Most of the time, they would feel far too janky, with the camera being obstructed in the middle of battle and enemies flying across the screen too quickly, but Epic Games withGears of Warmade one major change to the system which allowed everything to fall into place, and that was the cover mechanic. With the press of a button, Marcus will stick to a wall or barricade like glue, but because the movement inGears of Waris still so rapid, it ensures the core gameplay never feels too slow.
This cover shooter mechanic would be replicated in many games that came after, but another big wayGearschanged the industry was its emphasis on gore. Spilling blood and guts in a video game had always been seen ascontroversial, especially when looking back at the drama surroundingMortal Kombatin the 90s, butGears of Wardoubled down on the gore and kicked off a new age of mature and violent video games. This was amplified even more by the game’s very dark and gritty aesthetic, which also became commonplace throughout the late 2000s.
Games being difficult is nothing new, butNinja Gaidenwas the first time that major conversations regarding difficulty and accessibility began to arise within the industry. This was because, whileNinja Gaidenwas very much a mainstream game that many people wanted to get their hands on, it’s also known for being incredibly challenging due to its reliance on fast reflexes and a complex combo system. While the game itself was well-received, many reviewers at the time started to wonder whether this high difficulty should be embraced or if it needs to be removed from games altogether in order to allow casual players to have more fun.
Nowadays, this has become one of the most popular topics within gaming, especially with theSoulslike games, which decided to double down on their challenge, just likeNinja Gaidendid all those years ago. As a result,Ninja Gaidencould very much be seen as a cornerstone of this debate, which still rages on even today.
BeforeMass Effectcame along, RPGs followed a pretty strict formula, which many developers decided to stick to in order not to confuse or overwhelm the player. BioWare, however, decided to get a little bit experimental, and rather than opting for the classic turn-based combat system, which had started to get a little drawn out, they instead implemented third-person shooter gameplay while still managing to retain the core aspect of an RPG. For example, while players will be engaged in an intense shootout with someGeth or Krogan, they will then be able to select from a dialogue wheel not long after which will dictate the story and events that take place throughout the game.
Players are also able to tweak the stats of Shepard and their comrades, alongside embarking on side missions, and are even free to explore planets at their own leisure. The immense popularity ofMass Effectwould be highly influential in guiding many future RPGs to also go in this more action-oriented direction, alongside popularizing sci-fi, which had only rarely been explored in RPG games before.
Though the firstHalogame didn’t feature online multiplayer in the traditional sense, it still had an offline multiplayer mode, which became extremely popular considering the amount of LAN parties that were going on in the early 2000s. As a result, Bungie decided to introduce online matchmaking with the critically acclaimed sequel,Halo 2, though it’s unlikely they knew that this wouldrevolutionize multiplayer gaming forever. Being able to create a lobby with players from all around the world, before then taking on an enemy team based on skill level, was genuinely mind-blowing at the time, and set the foundation for what all online games would follow going forward.
This wasn’t just some cheap extra edition that was added at the last minute, either, as the environmental creativity that was seen in their campaign also applied to multiplayer, allowing players to get creative with their strategies. Game chat was another highly influential part of the multiplayer, which really made it feel like the online scene had truly entered the modern era. A lot of these things are taken for granted these days, but withoutHalo 2, the online multiplayer landscape would have looked far different today.
