Most unique & innovative games

EDIT: Games that you feel offer an aspect (mechanic/concept or what have you) that you can not get from any other game.

Whenever I look for new games, I always try to look for something different and unique. I like to experience new things; whether that be in scale, mechanics, art style, etc. Some of the games that I feel were innovative at the time (and some even now) (which I've played) are:

Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts (mechanics/creativity)FFXII (combat)WoW (scale)Sportsfriends; Joust and the pole pushers game (unique simplicity)

List of games I feel offer something that you can not get from any other game (that is not an obvious direct clone).:

Narbacular Drop/Portal Series

Minecraft (because this is the original and still provides the best experience of its mechanic)

Scribblenauts Series

Okami

Shadow of the Collosus

Fez

Brothers?

So what are some of the most innovative games that come to mind for you? And which games are treading paths not taken before?

GTA3

GTA 3 - Definitely agree. Goldeneye 007 and Mario 64.

No Man's Sky.

Portal

Half-Life.

• Pretty much all of Nintendo's early 3D work on the N64.
• GTA3 (as mentioned)
• Resident Evil 4, huge step forward for third person action games
• Chrono Trigger was doing a lot of interesting things at the time with its narrative and time traveling mechanic.
• Ninja Gaiden 1's cutscenes were pretty amazing at the time
• The first Devil May Cry did a lot of new interesting things with its combat systems.
• Metal Gear Solid had story and production values that were unmatched at the time.
• Wolfenstein 3D.

Kill.switch anyone????

In all seriousness I did enjoy this game when I was a kid

@hypnotoadbrwowrowrow: If you're talking about scale, at its launch, WoW was vastly smaller than Everquest. And I believe it is still significantly smaller.

I love the company and most of its games, but Blizzard is really the exact opposite of anything "innovative". Their particular genius lies in taking innovations from other games/genres and polishing and simplifying them into being the best (or at least most widely accessible) of that thing.

But really, every game they've ever made has a clear and direct inspiration.

@hypnotoadbrwowrowrow:

• I thought Pong, Tetris and Pacman we're pretty good at being unique and simplistic. Sportsfriends doesn't seem like the right game to point at.
• Half Life 2 did a great job of making physics a more prevalent part of the 3d FPS genre.
• Dune II gave us the blueprint for future RTSes (gathering resources, making units, base building , tech tree, unique factions , minimap)
• Battlefield 1942 for popularizing online muliplayer with vehicles
• Either Thief or Deus Ex because it provided you with so many options and let you choose your own approach.
• Assassins Creed for giving us the tower climb mechanic to access more missions in the world.
• Warcraft 3 / Starcraft 1 /Dota (whoever you want to give credit to) for spawning an entire new genre.
• Metal Gear Solid for the production value, storytelling
• GTA 3 as pioneer of 3d open world games.
• Max Payne for Bullet-time

• Half life
• Deus Ex
• RE4
• SWG (For me anyways)
• Mass Effect 1-3 (The way you use the same character in each game with his/her choices carried over was pretty cool)
• GTA3
• WoW
• STALKER series (They're just weird games that didn't always work, but man when they did they were pretty awesome)
• Dayz (I'm talking about the mod, particularly early in it's life. Nothing has quite replicated the first few weeks that mod was out for me.)

GTA 3, Mario 64, Doom, Starcraft, World of Warcraft, Street Fighter 2, Super Metroid (though it took a while), Rogue/Nethack, Dwarf Fortress, Minecraft, God of War, Uncharted 2, Call of Duty 4, Diablo 2, Final Fantasy, Hydlide. In the future: The Last of Us, Spec Ops: The Line, and Dark/Demon's Souls.

Note that influence doesn't necessarily reflect on the quality of a game and plenty of the best games ever made had very little impact. Third Person Shooters all sort of contributed little bits to the overall current picture (Uncharted 2's main impact being the presentation/Nolan North) without one clear game being the obvious starting point. It took over a decade for Super Metroid to be influential if you don't count Symphony of the Night, and Super Metroid is either the first or second best game ever made. I wish Resident Evil 4 was more influential, that would make games a hell of a lot better.

Ah yes, that would have to be one of the most original inventive games that still holds its ground. It used the infinite possibility of video games, did something different and succeeded!

• Maze War
• Colossal Cave Adventure
• Rogue

Surprised that nobody has mentioned Journey yet.

I think Valkyria Chronicles broke some great ground ahead of its time (though there were probably other games that did similar things first). Underrated mostly because of its aesthetic.

VVVVVV is a game that stands out (for me personally) as one with innovative mechanics that simply nails the execution and presentation. As in there's basically nothing I would change about that game (even though I cannot handle the Super Gravitron)...it just totally accomplishes what it's trying to do.

Surprised no one mentioned these:

Snatcher

Ico

NiGHTS into Dreams...

Killer7

Grim Fandango

Ōkami

Panzer Dragoon Saga

Valkyrie Profile

Catherine

Just remembered Scribblenauts! When I played that I thought it was amazing.

@greedy_fly_x: Wait? No Man Sky? That's not even out yet. If we were to by promise alone this list would be immense.

Irregardless, it seems people are confusing Innovation with Underrated.

Indigo Prophecy ? SOTC ?

OOT , definitely

I don't really see how OOT does anything unique. I mean it's a great game that was innovative at the time, but as it stands, I don't see it still doing anything that other games don't. This as well for SOTC, which is one of my favorite games I've played, but hardly unique.

Never played indigo prophecy but it looks like just a bunch of quick time events.

OOT and Mario 64 both pretty much wrote the book on how polygonal games should be done on consoles.

@turambar: So like I said, innovative at the time, but not unique now.

@hypnotoadbrwowrowrow: how is SOTC hardly unique? I can't think of another large-scale game that's entirely puzzle-based boss fights

I'm surprised Gear of War hasn't been mentioned. Sure, it was basically a mix of Kill Switch and RE4, but it almost single-handily launched not only the cover-shooter genre, but last generation. Halo: CE launched the modern console FPS controls. Heavy Rain is the only game I've ever played that has the most drastic branching paths to the end, with several different outcomes and endings from your choices (actually making them matter); I have two older brothers who have also played through this, and all three of us had completely different endings, something I don't think any other game has done. There is absolutely nothing like Gods Will Be Watching, even though I seem to be in the minority regarding that game's quality. Um...Mr. Mosquito?

Also, I really don't see how Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts with Besiege now out is something that you cannot get from any other game.

@hypnotoadbrwowrowrow said:

I mean, Portal isn't unique now. Portal 2, Q.U.B.E., Magrunner: Dark Pulse, Quantum Conundrum, etc.

At the time of its release, Portal had a novel approach to first person puzzles and storytelling.

At the time of their release, Super Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time had novel approaches to controls, camera control, lock-on, etc.

Few games stay unique forever, unless the market is so small that nobody else wants the turf (no one seems to have cloned Scribblenauts, for example).

None of those involve portal-teleportation based gameplay? You can't really get that portal mechanic in another game, as far as my knowledge goes. (EDIT: I'm guessing you thought I included portal for the room based puzzle delivery, maybe?)

That Q.U.B.E. game looks sweet though!

@jaypb08: Yeah, I keep going back and forth with BK: NaB with besiege now... probably gonna take it off, but besiege isn't really out yet. Any other "build your own vehicle to solve this puzzle" game out there you can think of? Surely there's gotta be more. But Gears of War, halo, all of those mentions were novelty only at their time. Now you can get what they offered through a ton of other games. Also, I feel like I'm just blanking on games similar to SotC but that there are some out there. Any come to mind? Game built of just strategic boss battles? I'll include it until something comes to mind. (Edit: took it off. Too easy to argue against it with stuff like kerbal space program and what not; even though the objectives are different what made it unique is found in other games.)

Innovative and unique mean two very different things.

@turambar: Touche, learn something new every day!

The innovative thing in WOW was not scale, its the incorporation of lore into an MMO. That idea was kind of new I think, everquest they just seem to make up stuff as they go but WOW they pick up all the story pieces they have and imagine cool ways to bring them together. Of course most people don't appreciate this aspect of it but as someone who read the books and knew about the history of orcs and the dragon aspects seeing it all come to life like that is pretty amazing.

Just came in for that comment, the thread topic is kind of too broad to mean anything and you don't explain it, every game is unique, and innovation can have any form(graphics/story/gameplay) or scale(incremental or game changer).

I have to agree; through my time playing WoW, the thing that got me wrapped up in the world was how there was a back-story to EVERY little thing in the game.

Take the line"Games that you feel offer an aspect (mechanic/concept or what have you) that you can not get from any other game," in any way you want and post the games you feel fit the bill. If no game has ever made you feel that, I'm sorry?

Are you aware of Narbacular Drop?

@beachthunder: Look at that. Edited to list Narbacular Drop/Portal series since the Portals are spiritual successors to the game

"Innovative" and "unique" are not synonyms; that's where the confusion arises. Innovative games are probably unique in some way, but if they inspire lots of imitators, their uniqueness will fade over time. The first Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy games were undoubtedly innovative when they were released, but there's little about them that remains unique now.

On the other hand, games like Ōkami and NiGHTS into Dreams... remain unlike anything out there.

Gears basically popularized cover based combat

Katamari Damacy

@instantryan: I second this.

Seaman for voice interaction.

Every MGS game, they all do something unique and different that you won't see in other games. From gameplay to how the story is told, regardless of if you like them, they at least try to do something different from other games and even from each other.

Eternal Darkness, the sanity effects are extremely unique and innovative that I'm surprised other series didn't try to adapt that system in someway. Maybe games did and I don't realize it but I can't think of very many examples.

When it comes to innovative I guess I'd have to mention the original Castle Wolfenstein on the Apple II as one of the (if not the) earliest stealth games and Project Firestart for the Commodore 64 as both a precursor to the survival horror genre and the Bioshock/System Shock style of "exploring a place after shit has hit the fan and learning what happened through audiologs".

Star Cruiser from 1988 and Cyber-Cop from 1990 kinda established the System Shock/Deus Ex style of FPS-RPG. The first System Shock even used the same shooting mechanic where you aimed your gun independently of the camera.

As for most unique games, I'd say The Sentinel, which is a really weird first person stealth-puzzle game for the C64 and Amiga where you have to approach a rotating eye without being seen by teleporting behind objects blocking it's cone of vision.

I also have to mention Omnitrend's Breach and Rules of Engagement series for PC, Atari ST and Amiga, where Breach was a X-COM style turn based strategy game and Rules of Engagement was a Star Trek inspired starship simulator - and the things that made them truly unique was how you could port your save inbetween the two series. In Rules of Engagement you could send a shuttle down to a planet, and then bring the save file over to Breach where you played as the shuttle crew, carried out mission objectives and then returned with what you found/captured to your starship in Rules of Engagement.

Oh, and Cryo's Commander Blood. The sequel to the almost as crazy Captain Blood. You explore planets using space dolphins and interplanetary TV networks in your mission to travel back in time to see the big bang.

Glad to see so much love for the Half-life games. That's a strong choice for me. Diablo series. An old PC game called Sanitarium for being the first horror game that made me care deeply for the characters and wrench my emotions while creeping me the F*** out. Quake series for perfecting the online twitch shooter genre (in my opinion! I know Unreal and a few others are awesome too but this is a personal choice for me). Brothers: A tale of 2 Sons and games similar in a way, in the way in which they bring something new and refreshing to the feel as well as the mechanics (Grow Home is another one of these I've played recently...could NOT help but feel goofy and happy as hell as I traversed some really interesting platforming). Stubbs the Zombie because I got to play AS the zombie (plus it was stupid fun). I'm sure I'll think of more later but there's a short list.

EDIT TO ADD: Fez! How could I forget Fez. I just started playing it recently (I know...late to the party!) but THAT game is DIFFERENT!

Half-Life, GTA3, Arkham is relatively new, but has pioneered some fighting styles in games, etcetera

Personally I feel arkham combat is pulled straight from assassins creed. Though I also think that the arkham games fleshed it out much much better.

At the time of release, I'd say Ocarina of Time was one of the most innovative games of all time. They really invented a whole lot in the way of gameplay design for that game. And it all worked.

Back then it was a favorite of mine. Good choice! Not because it was a favorite of mine but because you are right, it had some great gameplay and other elements. I haven't thought about that game in a long time. I don't think I've played it in about a dozen years. What a classic.

Well get yo ass on the 3DS version. It's one of the best remakes ever remade.

Westerado!

@mason20: Good 'ol mis-read. Thought we were looking ahead at games we think will innovate. Oops.

Awesome, thanks for the tip! I eyeballed it quite some time ago but didn't know if it was good or not, it's good to get the recommendation. I'll find it this weekend. You da best!