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Which of these would you guys say is the most innovative or ahead of its time game from 1995?
Descent (PC, 1995)
Bioforge (PC, 1995)
Command & Conquer (PC, 1995)
Fade to Black (PC, 1995)
Albion (PC, 1995)
MechWarrior 2: 31st Century Combat (PC, 1995)
Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness (PC, 1995)
Full Throttle (PC, 1995)
Earthsiege 2 (PC, 1995)
Hexen: Beyond Heretic (PC, 1995)
Magic Carpet 2 (PC, 1995)
The Dig (PC, 1995)
Terminal Velocity (PC, 1995)
Caesar II (PC, 1995)
Space Quest 6: The Spinal Frontier (PC, 1995)
I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream (PC, 1995)
Heroes of Might and Magic: A Strategic Quest (PC, 1995)

I'm leaning towards C&C but it's a 2D game and at its core it's still pretty similar to Dune 2, so I'm not sure.
Post edited March 15, 2018 by ResidentLeever
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ResidentLeever: Which of these would you guys say is the most innovative or ahead of its time game from 1995?
Descent (PC, 1995)
Bioforge (PC, 1995)
Command & Conquer (PC, 1995)
Fade to Black (PC, 1995)
Albion (PC, 1995)
MechWarrior 2: 31st Century Combat (PC, 1995)
Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness (PC, 1995)
Full Throttle (PC, 1995)
Earthsiege 2 (PC, 1995)
Hexen: Beyond Heretic (PC, 1995)
Magic Carpet 2 (PC, 1995)
The Dig (PC, 1995)
Terminal Velocity (PC, 1995)
Caesar II (PC, 1995)
Space Quest 6: The Spinal Frontier (PC, 1995)
I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream (PC, 1995)
Heroes of Might and Magic: A Strategic Quest (PC, 1995)

I'm leaning towards C&C but it's a 2D game and at its core it's still pretty similar to Dune 2, so I'm not sure.
My choice is: Descent (PC, 1995)

The whole 6 degrees of freedom aspect of this game felt VERY revolutionary at the time.
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ResidentLeever: I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream (PC, 1995)
Definitely have to agree on this one and I would add the first Silent Hill and the first Gabriel Knight into the mix. These games really stand out with their maturity, to this day that level of sophistication in writing is sadly pretty rare in video games - and with all of them I kinda felt that they arrived too soon to be fully appreciated.

Maybe it wasn't until the first Max Payne that a game with these qualities wasn't held back by the medium (or at least the genre) being too niche and technological limitations holding the delivery of the story back. And for Silent Hill sadly the typically low quality of video game voice acting in the 90's was another limiting factor. But at least that one's main qualities were retained in its generally far more refined sequels.
Post edited March 16, 2018 by F4LL0UT
Thief: The Dark Project
Planescape: Torment
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IronArcturus: Hostile Waters: Anteaus Rising
Hostile Waters was way ahead of its time! It had a very cinematic feel in the cut-scenes and the gameplay was top-notch. It allowed the player to create futuristic tank-like vehicles from a carrier and then plot them out on the screen.
You do know the game was heavily inspired by Carrier Command (1988)? So I wouldn't exactly call this ahead of its time.
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Geralt_of_Rivia: You do know the game was heavily inspired by Carrier Command (1988)? So I wouldn't exactly call this ahead of its time.
I've never heard of Carrier Command before, but it looks interesting! GOG doesn't have it right now, but I did find a wishlist for it. Maybe Career Command was just as obscure as Hostile Waters.
Post edited March 16, 2018 by IronArcturus
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Geralt_of_Rivia: You do know the game was heavily inspired by Carrier Command (1988)? So I wouldn't exactly call this ahead of its time.
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IronArcturus: I've never heard of Carrier Command before, but it looks interesting! GOG doesn't have it right now, but I did find a wishlist for it. Maybe Career Command was just as obscure as Hostile Waters.
It was actually quite well known and highly rated back in the day on the Amiga. The graphics obviously haven't aged very well. I have never played the remake from 2012 though since that was Steam only.
Post edited March 16, 2018 by Geralt_of_Rivia
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tinyE: Has anyone mentioned Tomb Raider?

If I'm wrong here let me know, because I want to learn, but I don't remember a game prior that gave you that 3rd person full movement/control, open world like that game did.
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kbnrylaec: Hunter(1991), a 3rd person full movement/control, open world polygon 3D game.
I did not mention it in this thread because it is for Amiga, not for IBM PC.
That was done before in 1985. Look up Mercenary.
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kbnrylaec: Hunter(1991), a 3rd person full movement/control, open world polygon 3D game.
I did not mention it in this thread because it is for Amiga, not for IBM PC.
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Geralt_of_Rivia: That was done before in 1985. Look up Mercenary.
Mercenary use wireframe only, no polygon.
Wireframe games appeared as early as 1980, FS-1 (Apple ][). It was earlier than Battlezone (1980).
The rigid body vehicle physics in Command & Conquer Renegade were ahead of their time. No-one else was doing that kind of vehicle physics simulation in an FPS game as far as I know. Its a pitty that game wasn't more popular as its a great game :)
I find the Commandos game series to have been ahead of their time. The stealth mechanics were innovative, characters had great diversity, enemies with line of sight and quite intelligent AI.

Many games using the same mechanics spun off this series with the latest probably being Shadow Tactics.

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Another one is Crysis, although it's not so old, I think many of us remember how the game literally stood out in the graphics department (and how much it tortured my poor PC @ 1024x768). Aside from the graphics, there wasn't anything special that is worth mentioning.
Darklands
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Ganni1987: I find the Commandos game series to have been ahead of their time. The stealth mechanics were innovative, characters had great diversity, enemies with line of sight and quite intelligent AI.
Cool, added some info to it. Current 1990s list:
http://minirevver.weebly.com/pc-games-ahead-of-their-time-90s.html
there is another, The Witcher, now that game was way ahead of its time in graphics..mechanics and physics buggy as hell but really one of the best rpgs ever made
Interstate 76. One of the first voice acted games. Relatively deep mechanics.

I really REALLY wish the IP would get a modern reboot.